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Boston  School  levies 


THE 

INFORMATION  READERS 

Number  I. 
FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES 

BY 

E.   A.    BEAL,    M.D. 

r 


BOSTON 
BOSTON  SCHOOL  SUPPLY  COMPANY 

15  B rom field  Street 
I89I 


B4- 


Copyright,  1S91, 
By   Boston  School  Supply  Co. 

€DUCAT!ON  DEFT, 


C.  J.  Peters  &  Son, 
Typographers  and  Electrotypers. 


Press  of  Berwick  &  Smitii. 


<  C- 


PREFACE. 


To-day's  school  curriculum  includes  only  one 
subject,  Reading,  in  which  the  text -books  have 
not  kept  pace  with  educational  progress.  There 
is  no  substantial  difference  between  the  old  Amer- 
ican Readers,  published  sixty  years  ago,  and 
any  series  now  in  use.  Yet  this  fact  should  not 
cause  surprise.  One  reading-book  must  resemble 
another,  if  both  are  merely  compilations  of 
extracts  chosen  for  elocutionary  purposes.  Our 
present  readers  are,  it  is  true,  more  sumptuous 
specimens  of  book-making,  but  children  are  not 
sent  to  school  to  admire  book-covers  or  to  look  at 
pictures. 

No  selections  from  Shakspeare  and  Milton 
have  been  culled  for  the  Information  Series. 
The  books  contain  no  "pieces  to  speak."  Ex- 
cerpts on  Constitutional  Government,  the  Destiny 
of  Man  and  other  trivial  subjects,  must  be  looked 
for    elsewhere.      Nor  is    the   text   of    the   Infor- 

543459 


4  .....::    PREFACE. 

matiqn  Readers.^- tissue  of  pretty  stories.  Means 
to  waste  the* 'precious  hours  of  school  life  can 
readily  be  invented,  if  such  waste  be  desired. 
No  effort  has  been  spared  to  render  infor- 
mation attractive,  indeed  ;  but  the  fundamental 
aim  of  the  series  has  not  been  ignored  in  a 
single  lesson. 

In  these  books  elocution  is  subordinated  to 
instruction,  —  such  instruction  as  will  aid  the 
young  learner  to  understand  the  life  of  the  world 
around  him.  How  many  school  graduates  of 
this  year  can  describe  the  sources  from  which 
food  is  obtained  or  can  tell  how  it  is  marketed  ? 
How  many  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  rail- 
road as  a  factor  in  determining  the  cost  of  living 
in  town  or  country  ?  How  many  have  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  processes  employed  in  making  cloth  ? 
How  many  know  how  gas  is  manufactured  ?  or 
how  steel  is  produced  ?  or  how  newspapers  are 
printed  ? 

To  the  educational  public  the  editors  of  this 
series  have  endeavored  to  present  reading-books 
the  perusal  of  which  will  stimulate  the  percep- 
tive faculties  of  the  pupil,  store  his  mind  with 
practical  information,  and  interest  him  in  vari- 
ous   arts    and    occupations    by    which    hundreds 


PREFACE.  5 

of  millions  of  persons  earn  their  daily  bread. 
Above  all,  it  is  hoped  that  the  books  will  create 
and  foster  in  the  mind  of  every  young  reader  a 
just  appreciation  of  the  nobility  of  manual  labor. 

In  the  preparation  of  these  volumes  several  dis- 
tinguished educators  have  shown  the  most  friendly 
interest.  The  invaluable  aid  of  their  counsel  and 
encouragement  is  gratefully  acknowledged. 

E.  A.  B. 
H.  W  C. 
W.  G.  P. 
R.  L. 


CONTENTS. 


LESSON  PAGE 

I.    The  First  Farming-Tool n 

II.    The  Oldest  Occupation 14 

III.  Uncle  Sam's  Seed  Barn 18 

IV.  An  American  Invention 22 

V.    An  Ox-Task  in  Bible  Times 25 

VI.    Grasses 28 

VII.    The. Miller's  Methods 30 

VIII.    Tom's  Letter 33 

IX.    Golden  Ears 36 

X.    The  Staff  of  Life 39 

XL    More  about  Bread 42 

XII.     A  Machine  Baker 45 

XIII.  Crackers 48 

XIV.  Cakes 50 

XV.    Three  Kingdoms  of  Food 53 

XVI.     Pod  Seeds 56 

XVII.    An  Eatable  Poison  Root 59 

XVIII.     Some  Vegetables 61 

XIX.    How  We  Eat  Potash 64 

XX.    Dairy  Products 66 

XXI.    The  Complete  Food 69 

XXII.    Butter  and  Oleomargarine 74 

XXIII.  Fat  from  Trees 79 

XXIV.  Cheese 83 

XXV.     What  Others  Eat 87 

XXVI.    The  Animal  Third  in  Value 91 


8  CONTENTS. 

LESSON  PAGE 

XXVII.  The  Best  Fare 93 

XXVIII.  Prizes  for  Improvement 96 

XXIX.  Beef iod 

XXX.  The  Soul  of  the  Farm 103 

XXXI.  Iced  Meat ic6 

XXXII.  Other  Modes  of  Preservation     ....  109 

XXXIII.  A  Frenchman's  Plan in 

XXXIV.  White  Treasures 114 

XXXV.  Feathered  Cheer 117 

XXXVI.  The  Harvest  of  the  Sea.    ......  120 

XXXVII.  Trawling 123 

XXXVIII.  Some  Fish  Sports 127 

XXXIX.  Money  from  Water 130 

XL.  An  American  Favorite 133 

XLI.  Finny  Millionnaires 137 

XLII.  Meat  without  Bones     .........  140 

XLIII.  Mackerel 145 

XLIV.  Two  Important  Fishes 148 

XLV.  Other  Fish  to  Fry 153 

XLVI.  United  States  Fisheries 157 

XLVII.  Pet  and  Pest 161 

XLVIII.  Our  Flying  Game 165 

XLIX.  Everybody's  Choice 169 

L.  More  about  Fruit 174 

LI.  A  Persian  Present 177 

LII.  Guests  from  Asia 181 

LIII.  Stone  Fruits 186 

LIV.  Products  of  the  Vine 189 

LV.  Globes  without  Maps 194 

LVI.  Health  Prfservers 199 

LVII.  Gifts  from  Abroad 204 

LVIII.  The  Rubi 210 

LIX.  Sugar 215 

LX.  The  Emperor's  Prize 220 

LXI.  The  Best  Tree 225 


CONTEXTS.  9 

LESSON  PAGE 

LXII.  Five  Saccharine  Substances 228 

LXIII.  Other  Sweet  Things 232 

LXIV.  Salt 236 

LXV.  Sour  and  Sweet 240 

LXVI.  Condiments 244 

LXV1I.  The  King's  Spices 248 

LXVIII.  Tea 252 

LXIX.  Coffee 256 

LXX.  The  Food  of  the  Gods 261 

LXXI.  Waters 266 

LXX  1 1.  Turning  Food  into  Poison 270 

LXXI  1 1.  A  Baneful  Beverage 273 

LXXIV.  The  Iron  Appraiser  of  Food 277 


FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 


Lesson  I. 
The  First  Farming-Tool. 

All  through  life  we  need  food,  rest,  and  shelter. 
If  any  one  of  us  should  be  exposed  to  frost  or 
rain  for  even  one  night,  he  would  die,  or,  at  least, 
become  seriously  ill.  If  we  could  not  get  food 
and  drink,  our  bodies  would  waste  away,  strength 
and  health  would  depart,  and  life  for  us  would 
soon  come  to  an  end. 

The  larger  part  of  our  daily  food  is  vegetable  in 
its  nature,  and  comes  mostly  from  crops  harvested 
every  year,  such  as  potatoes  and  wheat.  Each 
spring  the  ground  must  be  prepared,  and  the  seeds 
of  the  vegetables  wanted  must  be  sowed.  Of 
course  this  statement  is  true  only  when  made  with 
reference  to  the  cultivation  of  those  plants  which 
live  through  but  one  season.  These  are  called 
annuals.  A  rhubarb  root  will  produce  stalks  for 
several  seasons,  and  an  apple-tree  will  bear  fruit 
many  years. 

A  few  centuries  ago  farmers  knew  nothing  of 


12  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

plows,  and  at  planting-time  simply  scratched  fur- 
rows in  the  ground  with  pointed  sticks,  and  dropped 
seeds  in  those  inch-deep  channels.  As  men  grew 
wiser,  however,  they  saw  that  larger  harvests  would 
be  obtained  if  the  soil  could  be  stirred  more  deeply. 


Then  the  seeds  would  have  more  earth  from  which 
to  draw  moisture  and  nourishment.  It  was  a  great 
benefit  to  everybody,  therefore,  when  some  clever 
man  thought  of  fastening  two  long  handles  to  a  short, 
heavy,  pointed  piece  of  hard  wood,  and  of  making 
oxen  draw  this  curious  plow  through  the  ground. 


THE   FIRST  FARMING-TOOL.  1 3 

In  Europe  and  in  the  United  States  such  a  plow 
has  not  been  seen  for  two  hundred  years,  but  in 
certain  sections  of  Asia  and  of  the  American  con- 
tinent south  of  our  own  country,  it  is  used  yet  by 
simple-minded  farmers.  In  those  regions  people 
are  slow  to  understand  the  value  of  a  new  inven- 
tion, and  keep  to  their  old  ways. 

By  degrees  the  clumsy  wooden  plow  was  im- 
proved, until  we  have  the  almost  perfect  tool  pic- 
tured on  page  12.  You  must  remember,  though, 
that  the  changes  and  additions  were  made  only 
one  at  a  time.  No  machine  or  tool  has  ever  been 
invented  that  was  as  good  when  first  fashioned 
as  it  is  now. 

The  modern  plow  has  only  the  frame  of  wood, 
all  the  parts  that  touch  the  earth  being  made  of 
iron  and  steel.  The  most  valuable  improvement 
was  the  mold-board,  devised  in  Holland  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

In  this  country  horses  are  harnessed-  to  a  plow 
two  abreast,  but  in  Europe  they  are  often  hitched 
one  behind  the  other.  When  wild  land  is  to  be 
broken  up  for  seeding,  several  teams  of  oxen  are 
yoked  to  a  large,  heavy  plow,  called  a  prairie- 
breaker. 

The  principal  parts  of  an  ordinary  plow  are  : 
the  Share  and  the  Colter,  both  of  steel  ;  these 
cut  and  raise  a  strip  of  land,  termed  the  furrow- 


14  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

slice ;  the  Mold-Board,  which  turns  over  the  fur- 
row slice  ;  the  Frame,  with  its  Beam  and  Handles  ; 
the  Wheel,  which  regulates  the  depth  of  the 
plowing ;  and  the  Clevis,  to  which  the  draft-power 
is  applied.     Every  good  plow  has  all  these  parts. 


Lesson  II. 
The  Oldest  Occupation. 

In  harvest  time  some  portions  of  our  great 
North-west  are  simply  vast  wheat-fields.  One 
may  ride  for  hours  on  the  Northern  Pacific  Rail- 
road, and  see  yellow  waving  grain  on  every  side 
as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  How  grand  such  a 
scene  must  be  ! 

Suppose  a  farmer  of  North  Dakota  decides  to 
sow  twenty  thousand  acres  with  wheat.  How  will 
he  prepare  the  land  ?  Not  in  the  same  way  in 
which  plowing  is  done  in  the  East.  On  all  large 
Western  farms  gang-plows  are  employed.  These 
are  merely  six  or  eight  plowshares  bolted  to  a  strong 
frame,  which  is  generally  made  of  iron.  A  seed- 
sower  is  fastened  in  front  of  the  plow  ;  this  sower 
scatters  the  seed,  the  plow  covers  it  with  earth, 
and  the  work  is  done.  In  the  lighter  soils  a  large 
gang-plow  can  put  in  ten  acres  of  wheat  in  a  day. 


THE   OLDEST  OCCUPATION. 


■5 


A  gang-plow  has  no  handles  ;  the  plowman  is,  in 
fact,  nothing  but  a  driver,  his  sole  business  being 
to  guide  the  eight  horses  drawing  the  plow.  It  is 
a  striking  sight  to  see  ten  eight-gang  plows  follow- 
ing one  another  over  an  immense  plain,  each  plow- 


share cutting  a  furrow  a  mile  long,  perhaps,  and 
leaving  behind  a  track  of  land  plowed  and  sowed. 

On  heavier  soils  steam-plows  are  used.  They 
are  in  appearance  much  like  gang-plows,  but, 
instead  of  being  drawn  by  horses,  you  will  see, 
by  looking  at  the  picture  on  this  page,  that  a 
steam-plow  is    pulled  across  the  field    by  a  wire 


16 


FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 


rope.  Of  course  the  power  that  moves  the  plow 
is  applied  to  the  rope  by  the  engine. 

The  first  steam-plow  was  operated  in  England 
in  1832.  Great  improvements  have  been  made  in 
it  since  then,  however,  and  now  in  its  best  form  it 
can  do  as  much  work  as  forty  ordinary  plows. 

Clayey  ground  requires  to  be  cultivated  or 
harrowed,  and  sometimes  clod-crushers  have  to  be 


yHUL  TIPLB  f>LOUCH 


Cl  op  Crusher 


used  on  it.  A  seeding-machine  is  also  employed. 
This  scatters  the  seed-grain  forty  feet,  and  sows 
one  hundred  acres  a  day. 

If  these  modern  farm-tools  had  not  been  in- 
vented, the  millions  on  millions  of  human  beings 
living  on  the  globe  could  not  be  fed ;  for  the 
ground  could  not  be  prepared  for  sowing  the  seed 
of  the  immense  grain  harvests  gathered  every 
year.     Wheaten  bread  was  once  a  luxury  of  kings 


THE   OLDEST  OCCUPATION. 


and  nobles.     Now  it  is  part  of  the  every-day  food 
of  the  workingman. 

Every  bushel  of  grain  raised  over  last  year's 
cereal  harvest  must  benefit  some  needy  family. 
The  more  wheat  is  produced  here,  the  cheaper 
will  flour  be.     The  steam-plow  may  therefore  be 


said  to  be  one  of  the  noblest  tools  ever  made,  as  it 
enables  us  to  till  land  so  easily  that  wheat  enough 
can  be  raised  to  bring  bread  within  the  reach  of 
all  —  even  the  poorest. 

When  a  small  plot  of  ground,  like  a  garden,  is 
to  be  planted,  the  soil  is  turned  over  with  a 
spade.  In  Europe  the  spade  is  also  often  used 
in  field  work,  digging  potatoes,   turnips,  carrots, 


1 8  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

and  other  roots.  Ditches  are  dug,  trees  set, 
post-holes  made,  and  trenches  cut,  with  the  help 
of  the  same  useful  implement.  Can  you  men- 
tion any  other  kind  of  work  usually  done  with  a 
spade  ? 


Lesson  III. 
Uncle  Sam's  Seed  Barn. 

The  wise  plan  of  saving  the  finest  grains, 
roots,  and  seeds,  in  order  to  plant  them  the  next 
season,  has  brought  about  a  wonderful  gain  in  the 
quality  of  various  products  of  the  farm,  the  gar- 
den, and  the  orchard.  The  soil,  too,  is  carefully 
chosen.  Capable  farmers  do  not  think  that  any 
kind  of  land  is  suitable  for  every  kind  of  seed. 

Men  learned  in  a  branch  of  science  called 
Chemistry  can  tell  of  what  elements  different 
plants  are  composed.  As  the  chemists  can  also 
determine  whether  or  not  those  elements  are  in 
the  land,  the  seeds  of  the  crop  to  be  raised  can 
be  placed  in  soil  having  all  the  materials  needed 
for  that  crop's  growth.  Whatever  elements  are 
found  in  any  vegetable  —  in  the  potato,  for  in- 
stance—  must  first  have  been  in  the  air  or  the 
earth.  Is  not  this  statement  true  ?  Yet,  though 
we  eat  potatoes,   we  never  even  think  of  eating 


UNCLE  SAM'S  SEED   BARN. 


*9 


earth.     Earth   is  mineral  in   nature,  and  there  is 
only  one  mineral  used  as  a  food  —  salt. 

All  our  fruits  arid  food-plants  once  grew  wild, 
and  were  then  of  but  little  value  in  supporting 
life.  However,  by  careful  selection,  persisted  in 
year   after  year,  the  quality  has   been   so  much 


improved  that  there  is  now  very  little  likeness 
between  the  food-plants  of  to-day  and  the  wild 
stocks  from  which  they  sprang. 

Many  persons  do  not  know  that  the  United 
States  Government  spends  every  year  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  in  buying  seeds  of  the  best 
quality  for  the  purpose  of  giving  them  away.     The 


20  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  has  a 
large  brick  building,  in  which  thousands  of  bags 
of  seed  may  be  seen  piled  up  in  long  rows  during 
the  winter  season.  In  spring  most  of  the  seed  is 
sent  by  mail  to  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Let  us  imagine  that  we  are  visiting  the  building 
on  some  April  day.  We  will  go  into  the  mailing- 
room.  How  large  it  is  !  How  busy  every  one 
seems  to  be  !  Hundreds  of  young  women  rapidly 
putting  up  small  parcels,  others  pasting  and  ad- 
dressing labels,  men  dragging  heavy  sacks  hither 
and  thither  —  these  are  some  of  the  sights  that 
strike  us  on  entering. 

What  do  those  tin  pans  in  the  window-ledge 
contain  ?  Strong  wires  run  in  pairs  across  each 
pan,  which  is  half  full  of  water.  From  every 
pair  of  wires  a  fold  of  muslin  hangs,  two  inches 
of  it  at  least  being  in  the  water.  In  each  fold 
seeds  are  laid  from  one  side  of  the  pan  to  the 
other.  The  water  soaks  the  seeds,  and  causes 
them  to  sprout,  if  they  are  good.  This  is  the 
method  by  which  the  seeds  are  tested.  The 
Department  does  not  wish  to  send  out  bad  ones, 
so  from  each  lot  of  seed  bought  some  seeds 
are  taken  and  tried.  Seeds  not  proving  satis- 
factory are  sent  to  the  official  gardener  to  be 
tested  in  earth. 

The  young  women,  seated  at  little  tables,  are 


UNCLE   SAM'S  SEED  BARN.  21 

measuring  out  seed  from  sacks  into  brown  paper 
envelopes.  Some  of  these  workers  use  quart 
cups,  others  pints,  others  half-pints,  and  so  on 
downward,  the  smallest  measures  being  mere 
thimbles  with  long  handles.  The  envelopes,  too, 
differ  in  size.  A  pint  of  beans  needs  an  envelope 
larger  than  one  intended  to  hold  only  a  thimble- 
full  of  the  tiny  seeds  of  the  carrot,  does  it  not  ? 

In  another  room,  not  so  large  as  the  first  one, 
we  see  more  young  women  engaged  in  putting  up 
and  mailing  packets  of  flower-seeds.  Here,  too, 
potatoes  are  cut  up  and  packed  neatly  in  little 
wooden  boxes  —  twenty-five  "eyes"  in  each  box. 

The  usual  way  to  procure  Government  seeds 
is  to  apply  for  some  to  the  member  of  Congress 
in  whose  district  the  applicant  lives.  The  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  puts  about  five  thousand 
envelopes,  full  of  seeds,  at  the  disposal  of  each 
Congressman.  These  envelopes  are  mailed  under 
instructions  from  him.  Two-thirds  of  the  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  seeds  go  in 
this  manner  generally.  The  remaining  one-third 
is  distributed  as  the  Department  sees  fit. 


22  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  IV. 
An  American  Invention. 

In  old  times  men  used  to  reap  their  fields  of 
grain  with  sickles,  or  reaping-hooks.  Once  in  a 
while  the  sickle  is  found  useful  even  nowadays. 
New  inventions  seldom  render  the  things  they  dis- 
place entirely  worthless.  We  have  electric  lights 
now,  but  candles  are  still  manufactured. 

Looking  at  the  picture  of  the  sickle,  you  notice 
that  it  has  a  short  handle  and  a  narrow  curved 
blade.  The  reaper,  holding  the  hook  in  his  right 
hand,  grasps  with  his  left  as  many  stalks  of  the 
standing  grain  as  he  can  hold,  bends  them  back 
from  him  to  prevent  his  sickle  from  slipping,  and 
cuts  them  off  close  to  the  ground.  Another 
worker  binds  the  loose  grain  into  sheaves,  and 
sets  them  up  in  shocks,  or  stooks. 

Such  reaping  was  felt  to  be  too  slow  a  process 
when  farmers  began  to  grow  more  wheat.  It 
was  observed  that  the  mower  could  do  more  labor 
in  a  day  than  the  reaper,  because  the  scythe, 
the  cutting  tool  used  by  the  mower,  enabled  him 
to  work  with  both  hands.  Observation  here 
led  to  the  invention  of  the  grain  "cradle"  — 
an    implement    somewhat    like    the    scythe,    but 


AN  AMERICAN  INVENTION. 


23 


having  in  addition  four  light  wooden  fingers  at- 
tached to  the  handle.  The  cut  grain,  falling  on 
the  framework  made  by  these  fingers,  can  be 
dropped    by   the   reaper  where    he  wishes.     The 


grain-cradle   is  still  used  on  small    farms  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  United  States. 

The  mind  of  man  has  always  been  at  work 
seeking  to  find  new  methods  of  lightening  labor. 
We  cannot  tell  when  the  first  machine  to  har- 
vest grain  was  made.  The  greatest  wheat-grow- 
ing country  of  the  ancient  world  was  Egypt ;  and 


24  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

there,  three  or  four  thousand  years  ago,  no  doubt, 
the  first  grain  harvester  was  tried.  It  is  more 
than  nineteen  hundred  years  since  a  famous  Ro- 
man writer,  Pliny  the  Elder,  described  a  curious 
reaper  used  by  the  people  who  then  lived  in  that 
part  of  Europe  now  called  France.  It  looked 
somewhat  like  a  very  large  comb,  and  was  used  to 
tear  off  the  heads  of  the  grain. 

The  modern  reaper  may  be  said  to  date  its 
origin  from  a  machine  designed  by  an  English- 
man in  1786.  It  was,  however,  of  no  real 
service,  and  was  soon  laid  aside.  To  the  Ameri- 
can, McCormick,  belongs  the  honor  of  having 
made  the  first  practical  machine  for  reaping. 
The  principle  on  which  it  works,  thought  out  in 
1 83 1,  is  the  one  on  which  every  reaper  now  in  use 
is  constructed.  Of  course  many  improvements 
have  been  added.  The  latest  reaping-machine  not 
only  cuts  the  grain,  but  also  rakes  it  into  bundles 
of  uniform  size,  ties  them  with  twine,  and  drops 
them  on  the  ground. 

Reapers  are  operated  by  horse-power,  but  a 
steam  reaping-machine  has  lately  been  tried,  and 
promises  to  be  of  great  value  on  the  immense 
prairie  farms  of  the  Northwest.  Grass-cutting 
machines,  called  mowers,  are  also  made.  Ameri- 
can reapers  and  mowers  are  sent  to  all  parts  of 
the  world.     In  the  five  years  between   1880  and 


THE   OX-TASK  IN  BIBLE    TIMES.  25 

1886,  this  country  manufactured  seven  hundred 
thousand  mowing  and  reaping  machines  —  an 
enormous  number.  It  required  the  labor  of  thou- 
sands of  men  to  make  those  machines,  and  the 
wages  paid  supported  thousands  of  persons  in 
comfort.  The  reapers  were  the  means  not  only  of 
thus  furnishing  bread  to  the  workmen  building 
them  but  also  of  making  that  bread  cheaper  by 
lessening  the  cost  of  harvesting  the  grain. 


Lesson  V. 
An  Ox-Task  in  Bible  Times. 

The  process  of  clearing  the  grain  from  husks 
and  chaff  is  called  threshing  or  thrashing.  In  the 
days  of  our  grandfathers  the  cut  grain  was  spread 
out  on  a  floor,  prepared  for  threshing  purposes, 
and  a  flail  was  used  to  beat  the  husks  from  the 
kernels.  The  flail  was  made  of  two  hard-wood 
sticks  of  different  lengths,  joined  by  a  hinge  of 
leather. 

The  thresher  grasped  the  end  of  the  longer 
stick,  swung  the  flail  aloft,  and  brought  it  down 
on  the  grain.  It  took  much  time  to  learn  to 
thresh  skilfully  with  a  flail,  and  a  beginner,  using 
it,  was  more  likely  at  first  to  beat  his  own  head 
than  the  heads  of  wheat.     With  practice,  however, 


26 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


the  work  grew  easier,  and  the  thresher  learned  to 
knock  the  husk  off  the  kernels  without  breaking 
them. 

The  Old  Testament  tells  us  not  to  muzzle  the 
ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn.  In  Palestine  and 
countries  near  it  people  still  thresh  their  grain 
by  having  oxen  walk   on   it  ;  for    in  -old   Asiatic 


lands  progress  is  unknown.  The  ancient  ways 
of  working  are  considered  good  enough  there,  and 
changes  are  not  looked  on  with  favor. 

By  so  slow  a  method  of  threshing  we  could 
never  procure  wheat  enough  to  supply  the  demand 
in  our  own  country,  nor  could  we  furnish  Europe 
with  the  millions  of  bushels  of  grain  we  send 
thither  every  year.     The  flail,  too,  is  out  of  date 


THE   OX-TASK  IN  BIBLE    TIMES.  2J 

now,  and  threshing  is  done  by  steam-power.  A 
new  threshing-machine  binds  the  straw  into 
bundles,  and  stacks  them,  in  addition  to  separat- 
ing the  grain  from  the  chaff  and  the  husks. 

The  straw  is  used  as  litter  for  horses  and 
cattle.  You  know  that  straw  of  a  certain  quality 
is  employed  for  making  hats  and  bonnets,  and 
that  a  cheaper  grade  is  manufactured  into  paper. 
To  the  farmer  the  straw  as  well  as  the  grain  is 
therefore  a  source  of  profit. 

The  old  way  of  cleaning  the  grain  from  the 
husks  —  called  winnowing  it  —  was  to  throw  it  by 
shovelfuls  from  one  end  of  the  barn  towards  the 
other.  The  kernels  went  much  farther  than  the 
husks,  because  these  are  very  light.  On  the  large 
wheat-farms  of  the  West  the  wheat  is  threshed 
and  cleaned  in  the  field  by  steam.  In  the  thresh- 
ing-machines worked  by  horse-power,  a  circular  fan, 
in  shape  somewhat  like  a  steamer's  paddle-wheel, 
blows  the  husks  away  from  the  grain. 

By  means  of  these  labor-saving  machines  the 
cost  of  wheat  is  much  reduced.  If  all  the  wheat 
grown  in  the  United  States  this  year  had  been 
cut  by  reaping-hooks,  threshed  by  flails,  and  win- 
nowed in  the  old  style,  none  but  the  very  rich 
could  afford  to  eat  white  bread.  Every  machine, 
then,  that  saves  time  and  labor,  is  a  direct  benefit 
to  the  poor. 


28  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  VI. 
Grasses. 

Certain  plants  with  stringy  roots,  and  hollow 
jointed  stalks,  are  classed  into  one  family  by 
botanists,  and  are  known  as  the  Grasses.  They 
are  the  most  important  of  all  vegetal  products. 
You  expect  to  learn  that  common  grass  is  a 
member  of  this  family  ;  but  perhaps  it  will  sur- 
prise you  to  be  told  that  bamboo  and  sugar-cane 
are  also  grasses. 

It  is  more  interesting,  however,  to  know  that 
wheat,  corn,  rye,  oats,  barley,  millet,  and  rice  be- 
long to  this  same  group.  People  have  always  used 
the  seeds  of  these  plants  for  food.  They  grow  in 
all  parts  of  the  globe  where  man  lives.  Barley  is 
the  hardiest  of  the  grasses,  and  is  found  even  in 
the  frigid  zones.     Rice  requires  a  tropical  climate. 

The  kernels  are  oval  in  shape,  except  the  millet 
kernels,  which  are  round,  like  small  shot.  The 
outside  layer  of  each  kernel,  or  seed,  is  composed 
chiefly  of  woody  fibre.  This  is  worthless  for 
food.  The  next  layer  is  brownish  in  color,  and 
the  next  white.  Both  these  layers  are  valuable. 
In  grinding  wheat  it  is  usual  to  separate  the  white 
portion  of  the  kernel  from   the  brown.     To  use 


GRASSES.  29 

only  the  former  for  bread-making  is  a  common 
mistake.  The  brown  part  contains  food  for  the 
brain  and  muscles,  while  the  white  layer  is  mainly 
starch,  and  can  do  but  little  more  for  the  body 
than  to  furnish  heat  to  it. 

Barley  is  a  native  of  Central  Asia.  The  ancient 
Egyptians  believed  it  was  the  first  of  the  grasses 
to  be  used  as  a  food.  The  old  Romans  fed  it  to 
their  horses.  Only  two  centuries  ago  it  was  the 
common  food-grain  of  England.  Now  that  rail- 
roads and  steamers  enable  us  to  exchange  quickly 
the  products  of  one  country  for  those  of  another, 
wheat  from  the  United  States  can  be  sold  in 
England  at  low  rates.  Barley  is  prepared  for 
table  use  by  pearling  the  grains  —  that  is,  by  peel- 
ing off  the  outer  woody  layer. 

It  is  not  known  where  ma'h  first  discovered 
oats  growing  wild.  Oatmeal  porridge  is  mentioned 
by  an  English  writer  who  lived  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  We  have  reasons  for  believing  that 
oatmeal  was  used  to  some  extent  as  a  food  three 
hundred  years  before  that  period.  Oats  will 
flourish  in  almost  as  cold  a  climate  as  barley. 
We  should  remember  that  oatmeal,  while  not  so 
easily  digested  as  wheat  flour,  contains  more  of 
the  materials  of  which  muscle  is  composed. 

Rye  will  grow  as  far  north  as  oats,  and  will 
thrive  in  a  soil  too  poor  for  any  other  grain.     The 


30  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

flour  made  from  rye  is.  not  so  white  as  wheat 
flour,  but  is  much  richer  in  muscle-forming  sub- 
stances. Rye  bread  is  in  every-day  use  in  Ger- 
many and  Russia.  Sometimes  a  fungus  grows  on 
the  grains,  giving  them  the  shape  of  spurs.  This 
fungus  is  called  ergot,  and  is  a  poison.  Of  course 
it  would  be  dangerous  to  eat  bread  made  from 
flour  with  which  such  spurred  grains  had  been 
ground  up. 

Four  hundred  million  people  live  mainly  on 
rice.  It  forms  the  principal  part  of  the  daily 
food  of  one-third  of  the  human  race.  No  other 
one  of  the  grasses  is  so  largely  used.  The  fields 
in  which  it  is  grown  are  covered  with  water. 
Rice  is  mostly  starch,  contains  but  little  nourish- 
ment for  the  brain  or  the  muscles,  and  the  nations 
living  on  this  cereal  are  behind  Europeans  and 
Americans   in  almost   everything  useful. 


Lesson  VII.  , 
The   Miller's   Methods. 


Wheat  grows  in  all  temperate  climates.  Unlike 
rye  or  barley,  it  needs  a  rich  soil.  Since  the  dis- 
covery of  America  by  Columbus  the  use  of  wheat 
has   been   steadily  on   the   increase.     The   cause 


THE   MILLER'S  METHODS.  3* 

seems  to  be  the  fact  that  bread  made  from  it  is 
lighter,  and,  therefore,  more  digestible,  than  that 
baked  from  any  other  grain.  Wheat  is  the  only 
one  of  the  grasses  having  in  it  a  large  share  of  a 
tough,  elastic  substance,  called  gluten.     It  is  the 


gluten  that,  with  the  aid  of  heat  and  yeast,  enables 
a  lump  of  moistened  dough  to  expand  to  a  loaf  of 
bread  three  times  as  large.  Such  bread  can  be 
readily  digested,  and,  as  it  has  no  decided  flavor, 
we  do  not  become  tired  of  it. 

The  quality  of    flour  depends  on  the  kind   of 


32  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

wheat,  the  curing  of  the  wheat,  and  the  mode  of 
grinding.  There  are  only  two  kinds  of  wheat, 
the  hard  wheat  and  the  soft,  but  each  kind  has 
several  grades.  American  wheat  is  mostly  soft  ; 
the  wheat  raised  on  the  plains  of  Hungary  is  an 
example  of  the  hard  variety.  The  utmost  care 
is  taken  to  cure,  or  dry,  the  grain  properly.  If 
moldy,  it  is  unfit  for  flour. 

In  old  times  the  grain  was  brayed  into  meal  in  a 
stone  bowl.  Even  to-day  the  Indians  of  Mexico 
may  be  seen  grinding  their  corn  in  the  same 
primitive  manner.  The  next  process  in  advance 
in  flour-making  was  to  place  one  grindstone  on 
another,  pour  the  grain  in  between  them,  through 
an  opening  in  the  top  stone,  and  set  the  latter 
whirling  round  and  round  with  great  speed  by 
means  of  wind-power. 

Later  on,  water-power  was  employed.  A  stream 
was  led  to  fall  into  the  buckets  of  a  huge  wheel, 
or  was  allowed  to  strike  the  wheel  underneath. 
By  either  method  the  wheel  was  turned  with  great 
force.  Oftentimes,  however,  the  wind  failed  ;  then 
the  mill  stood  idle,  and  of  course  it  was  compelled 
to  stand  idle  also  when  the  stream  dried  up  or 
was  frozen. 

The  largest  mills  now  grind  by  steam.  There 
are  two  systems  of  grinding  —  high-milling  and 
low-milling.     Low-milling    crushes    the   grain   be- 


TOM'S  LETTER.  33 

tween  heavy  stones,  grooved  to  catch  the  kernels. 
Heating  the  flour  and  grinding  part  of  the  husk 
with  it  are  the  chief  defects  of  this  plan. 

High-milling  is  a  succession  of  crackings  and 
squeezings.  The  kernels  first  pass  between  steel 
rolls  which  crack  them  slightly,  the  next  set  of 
rolls  squeeze  the  cracked  kernels  more,  and  so  on. 
By  this  mode  the  husk  is  not  ground  up  with 
the  flour,  but  only  flattened,  thus  allowing  the  dry 
part  of  the  kernel  inside  the  husk  to  fall  out. 
The  flour  is  not  heated,  and  is  whiter  than  if  it 
had  been  low-milled,  because  the  bran  is  removed 
without  grinding  it.  But  only  hard  wheat  is  suit- 
able for  high-milling. 


Lesson  VIII. 
Tom's    Letter. 


Minneapolis,  December  19,  1890. 

Dear  Fred,  —  This  city  seems  to  be  full  of 
millers.  More  wheat  is  ground  into  flour  here 
every  day  than  in  any  other  place  in  the  world. 

Uncle  George  and  I  visited  one  of  the  big  mills 
last  week.  It  is  a  huge  building  nine  stories  high. 
There  were  dozens  of  workmen  on  each  floor,  and 
all  were  as  busy  as  bees. 

The  whirr  of    the  machinery  almost  deafened 


34  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

me,  but  it  did  not  trouble  the  millers  at  all  —  at 
least  I  think  it  did  not,  for  they  seemed  to  under- 
stand the  orders  given  by  the  foreman. 

A  railroad  track  runs  up  to  one  side  of  the 
mill,  and  the  grain  is  poured  directly  from  box- 
cars into  the  mill  by  means  of  the  elevator,  and 
then  is  sent  up  from  the  basement  to  the  top 
story  by  steam-power. 

The  first  process  is  cleaning  the  wheat.  Straws, 
sand,  chaff,  bits  of  iron  and  of  wood,  are  thrown 
out  by  the  separators,  as  the  cleaning-machines 
are  called.  Grass-seeds,  beans,  chess,  smut  —  in 
fact,  everything  not  wheat-kernels  is  sifted  out. 
The  grains  are  passed  between  brush-rollers,  and 
dust  and  fuzz  are  thereby  removed,  leaving  the 
kernels  perfectly  clean.  The  dust  is  blown  out 
of  the  separator  by  a  current  of  air  rushing  up 
the  machine  while  the  wheat  is  coming  down. 

The  next  step  is  to  crack  the  kernels  length- 
wise, then  they  are  squeezed  again,  and  the  oper- 
ation is  repeated  a  third  time.  This  last  time 
the  husk  is  freed  from  the  good  part  of  the 
grain.  One  of  the  owners  of  the  mill  said 
this  way  of  turning  wheat  into  flour  is  called 
high-grinding. 

The  grain  is  now  shaken  in  coarse  sieves,  and 
the  bran  is  separated  from  the  wheat  meal.  This 
meal  is  called  middlings.     I   tasted  a  little  of  it, 


TOMS   LETTER.  35 

and  it  was  quite  sweet.  Though  the  bran  can- 
not be  used  for  making  bread,  it  is  good  food 
for  cattle,  and  is  run  into  cars,  and  sold  to 
farmers  who  fatten  live-stock  for  the  Eastern 
meat-markets. 

The  middlings  are  ground  again,  and  then  sifted 
five  times — so  the  foreman  said.  This  sifting  is 
termed  "  bolting,"  and  is  done  by  means  of  large 
round  sieves,  made  of  silk,  revolving  very  fast  on 
a  steel  bar.     The  last  bolting  gives  flour. 

On  the  first  floor  we  saw  a  row  of  great  iron 
tubes  on  each  side  of  the  mill.  The  flour  came 
down  through  these,  and  was  packed,  by  machin- 
ery, in  barrels  or  bags.  One  man  tended  each 
machine.  When  a  barrel  or  a  bag  was  filled,  the 
workman  put  it  on  a  scale  to  find  out  whether 
he  had  let  in  the  correct  weight  of  flour.  Every 
barrel  must  contain  one  hundred  and  ninety-six 
pounds  of  flour.  A  bag  of  flour  is  equal  to  one- 
eighth  of  a  barrel. 

Everything  possible  seems  to  be  done  in  the 
mills  to  lighten  the  work  of  the  men  and  to  im- 
prove the  quality  of  the  flour.  The  rich  mill- 
owners  are  always  ready  to  buy  any  patented 
invention  that  will  help  them  to  make  flour  more  • 
cheaply  or  to  make  it  better  in  grade.  In  a  Mas- 
sachusetts engineering  school,  only  last  year,  a 
young  man  patented  an  electric  machine  for  col- 


36  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

lecting  the  flour  dust ;  and  yet  his  patent  is  now 
used  in  several  mills  here. 

The  wheat-cleaning  machines  had  pipes  attached 
to  draw  away  the  dust  and  to  carry  it  out- doors. 
Uncle  George  says  that  very  fine  dust  of  any 
substance  will,  if  mixed  with  air,  explode  with 
great  violence  on  bringing  a  light  into  contact 
with  such  dust-laden  air.  A  dust  explosion  in  a 
mill  would  cause  great  loss  of  life.  I  hope  every- 
one at  home  is  well.  Good-by  for  the  present. 
Your  loving  brother, 

Tom. 


Lesson  IX. 
Golden  Ears. 


Corn,  the  largest  and  handsomest  of  the  grasses, 
is  a  native  of  the  American  Continent.  Soon 
after  its  discovery  here  it  was  introduced  into 
Europe.     In  England  it  is  called  maize. 

When  grown  in  a  warm  rich  soil,  corn  attains  a 
height  of  five  or  six  feet,  while  its  broad  leaves 
springing  from  its  straight  thick  stem,  its  elegant 
*  spike  of  flowers  at  the  top,  its  silken  tufts  rising 
from  the  end  of  the  cob,  present  a  beauty  of 
form  rarely  surpassed  even  by  tropical  plants.  It 
grows  wild  in  the  hotter  parts  of   the  Western 


GOLDEN  EARS. 


37 


Continent,  but  is  cultivated  in  every  quarter  of 
the  globe.  It  does  not  flourish,  however,  in  cold 
or  moist  climates. 

Numerous  preparations  of  the  grain  are  in  use. 
The  pearled  kernels  form  samp  ;  kernels  heated 
so  as  to   burst    them   are   termed   pop-corn,   but 


these  are  not  from  the  same  variety  of  grain  as 
the  former.  Broken  corn  is  called  hominy  ;  a 
fine  flour  is  known  as  corn-starch. 

Indian  meal  does  not  possess  gluten  enough 
to  make  good  bread  ;  wheat  flour  must  be 
added.  It  is  remarkable  that  there  is  no  domestic 
bird    or    animal    that    does    not    prefer    corn    to 


38  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

any  other  grain.  Poultry  of  all  kinds  fatten  on 
it ;  oxen,  horses,  sheep,  and  cows  eat  it  with  great 
relish.  In  the  United  States  farmers  sometimes 
sow  it  broadcast,  and  cut  it  for  fodder,  like  ordi- 
nary grass. 

Corn  is  an  excellent  food,  and  is  easily  digested. 
It  is  better  than  rice,  but  is  not  so  good  as  wheat, 
because  the  latter  grain  contains  more  nutriment 
for  the  nerves  and  muscles.  Corn  has  more  oil  in  it 
than  barley,  wheat,  or  rice.  The  climate  of  West- 
ern Europe  is  too  damp  for  the  cultivation  of 
corn  as  a  field  crop ;  and  the  grain  was  not  con- 
sumed to  any  great  extent  in  the  British  Islands 
till  the  year  of  the  potato  failure,  1846.  Since  then 
about  one  million  four  hundred  thousand  bushels 
of  corn  are  imported  annually  into  England  and 
Ireland,  chiefly  from  the  United  States.  In  Italy 
Indian  meal  has  long  been  a  favorite  article  of 
diet  with  the  poorer  classes.  The  European 
country  producing,  in  proportion  to  its  area,  the 
most  corn  is  Greece.  Large  quantities  of  the 
grain  are  raised  in  Turkey  also. 

Our  own  country  exports  every  year  about  one 
hundred  million  bushels  of  this  valuable  cereal. 
But  it  is  surprising  to  learn  that  we  use  at  home 
twenty  times  that  enormous  amount,  mostly  in 
the  shape  of  food  for  cattle  and  hogs.  Farmers 
have  learned  that  there  is   more  profit  for  them 


THE   STAFF  OF  LIFE.  39 

in  keeping  live-stock  to  which  the  corn  can  be 
fed,  than  in  sending  it  to  market.  The  railroads 
charge  as  much  for  one  hundred  pounds  of  corn, 
carried  as  freight,  as  for  one  hundred  pounds  of 
pork,  and  the  pork  will  sell  for  much  more  money 
than  the  corn. 

For  the  past  eighty  years  the  acreage  of  our 
corn  crop  has  been  constantly  increasing,  till  now 
corn  is  the  most  important  grain-product  of  the 
United  States.  It  brings  money  not  only  to  the 
farmers  who  raise  it  but  also  to  the  railroads  that 
transport  it  from  farms  to  markets,  to  the  steamers 
which  carry  it  abroad,  and  to  everybody  that  buys 
or  sells  it. 


Lesson  X. 
The  Staff  of  Life. 


Plowing,  harrowing,  reaping,  threshing,  win- 
nowing, grinding — all  these  different  kinds  of 
labor  might  be  performed  with  one  object  in  view, 
the  production  of  flour  that  could  be  made  into 
nutritious  bread.  To  make  bread,  water,  salt,  and 
flour  are  mixed  together  into  dough,  a  little  yeast 
being  added. 

In  ancient  times  yeast  was  unknown.  Bread- 
makers  then  used  leaven.     It  is  occasionally  used 


40  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

even  nowadays  by  the  uneducated  class  of  people 
in  some  foreign  countries.  Leaven  consists  of  flour 
and  water,  mixed  and  kept  till  signs  of  fermenta- 
tion appear.  The  dough  becomes  spongy,  bubbles 
of  carbonic  acid  gas  having  formed  in  it.  It  is  this 
gas  that  causes  the  fizz  and  foam  of  soda-water. 
The  dough  is  now  leaven,  and  can  excite  a  like 
ferment  in  other  dough  within  a  few  hours.  To 
make  the  leaven  itself  will  usually  require  a  fort- 
night. 

Yeast  is  the  thick  froth  that  rises  to  the  top  of 
malt  liquor.  This  froth,  after  being  skimmed  off, 
is  partly  dried  ;  then  it  is  pressed,  washed,  and  cut 
up  into  little  blocks.  These  blocks,  covered  with 
tinfoil,  are  sold  under  the  name  of  compressed 
yeast. 

The  action  of  yeast  on  batter,  or  dough,  is  very 
curious.  First  the  starch  of  the  flour  is  changed 
into  a  sort  of  sugar,  called  glucose ;  then  this 
sugar  dissolves  into  alcohol  and  carbonic  acid  gas, 
and  the  gas,  trying  to  get  out  of  the  dough,  swells 
it,  or  makes  it  rise,  as  we  often  say.  The  alcohol 
and  gas  escape  during  the  baking  of  the  dough, 
but  the  gas  leaves  holes  in  the  bread,  thus  render- 
ing it  lighter  and  more  digestible. 

It  is  easy  to  produce  bread  without  either  yeast 
or  leaven.  Mix  with  the  batter  a  little  saleratus 
and  a  small  quantity  of  the  acid  known  as  spirits 


THE   STAFF  OF  LIFE. 


41 


of  salt.  The  heat  of  the  oven  will  swell  this 
dough  until  it  is  quite  light,  baking  it  at  the 
same  time. 

There  is  another  process  of  making  bread  with- 


i^flUij^^gjrp  tea  cKttPcamm.. jw.^ 


WW 


V  /  \ 

_ — 


33  ^TinEfflTBiaWttj 


out  yeast  or  leaven  or  salt.  It  was  thought 
out  by  an  English  physician,  Dr.  Dauglish,  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  great  cities  for  some 
quick  and  wholesome  way  of  turning  flour  into 
bread. 

The  needed  carbonic  acid  gas  is  prepared  before- 
hand in  a  separate  vessel.     This  gas  is  then  forced 


42  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

into  water,  which  finally  becomes  highly  charged 
with  it,  and  the  flour  is  mixed  with  this  water  in 
a  strong  iron  mixer.  At  the  proper  time  a  valve 
opens,  having  fixed  before  it  a  long  trumpet- 
shaped  nozzle  resting  on  a  large  marble  slab. 

The  peculiar  shape  of  the  nozzle  allows  the 
sponge  to  distend  gradually  instead  of  suddenly. 
It  issues  in  a  long  roll,  and  is  cut  off  into  the 
requisite  lengths  by  a  workman,  whose  accuracy 
in  slicing  off  the  right  amount  of  dough  each  time 
seems  marvellous.  By  Dr.  Dauglish's  method  of 
bread-making,  sometimes  called  the  aerated  pro- 
cess, flour  can  be  changed  into  bread  in  an  hour 
and  a  half,  nearly  all  the  work  involved  being  done 
by  machinery. 


Lesson  XI. 
More  about  Bread. 


The  new  processes  of  bread-making  promise  to 
change  entirely  the  baking  methods  at  present  in 
general  use.  Machinery  will  supersede  hand-work. 
The  bread-bakery  of  the  future  will  be  an  immense 
factory,  wherein  hundreds  of  persons  will  find  em- 
ployment. The  gain  will  be  a  great  saving  in  the 
cost  of  a  very  important  article  of  food  —  our 
daily  bread. 


MORE  ABOUT  BREAD.  43 

No  manual  labor  can  rival  amixing-and-kneading 
machine  in  obtaining  exact  and  certain  results  in 
its  line  of  work.  On  page  45  you  can  see  a  pic- 
ture of  this  machine.  From  a  spout  over  it,  flour 
is  pouring  in,  coming  from  the  story  above.  If 
you  should  look  into  the  tank,  which  the  bakers 
call  the  holder,  you  would  see  several  paddles 
revolving  in  the  dough.  At  one  moment  they 
move  toward  one  another,  compressing  the  dough  ; 
the  next,  with  reversed  motion,  they  tear  it  asunder. 
About  a  quarter  of  an  hour  is  required  for  mixing  ; 
then  the  holder  is  tilted,  the  dough  falls  on  a 
large  table,  and  is  ready  to  be  divided  into 
loaves. 

Graham  bread,  such  as  is  usually  sold  in  baker- 
shops,  is  merely  bread  made  from  white  flour 
sprinkled  with  middlings.  Now,  this  is  not  the 
right  way  to  produce  the  best  brown  bread. 
Almost  any  grocery  store  can  to-day  supply 
whole-wheat  flour.  This  has  been  specially  pre- 
pared by  grinding  the  middlings  fine  and  adding 
them  to  the  flour.  By  this  plan  all  the  valuable 
elements  of  the  wheat  are  preserved  in  due  pro- 
portion. It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that 
bread  with  much  bran  in  it  is  of  little  use.  The 
bran  irritates  the  delicate  lining  of  the  stomach 
so  greatly  that  complete  digestion  of  the  rest 
of  the  bread  cannot  take  place. 


44  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

White  bread  can  be  more  thoroughly  digested 
than  brown  bread ;  but  the  latter,  if  properly 
made,  is  more  capable  of  satisfying  the  wants  of 
the  body.  Persons  using  bread  made  from  refined 
flour,  should  also  eat  at  every  meal  some  food  of 
animal  origin,  as  meat,  eggs,  or  cheese. 

Stale  bread  is  more  digestible  than  fresh  bread. 
No  loaf  less  than  twenty-four  hours  old  should 
ever  be  placed  on  the  table.  French  bread  owes 
its  superior  lightness  to  the  hot  milk  used  to 
make  the  flour  into  batter.  Vienna  rolls  are  made 
from  a  special  grade  of  flour,  costing  twice  as 
much  as  common  flour.  Boiled  potatoes  are  often 
mixed  with  dough  to  cause  it  to  rise  quickly.  As 
they  are  largely  starch,  they  effect  the  purpose 
intended,  because  cooked  starch  is  changed  into 
sugar  more  rapidly  than  raw  starch. 

In  times  of  scarcity  of  wheat  flour,  various 
vegetal  products  have  been  mixed  with  it  to  eke 
out  the  scanty  supply.  During  the  siege  of  Paris 
by  the  Germans,  an  odd  sort  of  bread  was  made 
of  a  little  flour,  mixed  with  some  oatmeal,  and 
with  straw  cut  up  very  fine.  In  Norway  and 
Sweden,  beech  sawdust  is  sometimes  boiled,  baked, 
and  mingled  with  wheat  meal,  to  form  material 
for  bread. 


A    MACHINE   BAKER. 


45 


Lesson  XII. 

A  Machine  Baker. 

A  baker's  oven  is  a  chamber,  built  commonly 
of    fire-brick,   having  an   arched    roof   and   a   flat 


floor  of  tile  or  stone.  The  oven  is  generally 
underground.  Formerly  it  was  heated  by  wood 
burned  within  it.     While   the  wood  was   ablaze, 


46  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

the  oven  doors  were  kept  closed,  a  small  aperture 
being  left  to  supply  air.  When  the  fuel  had 
smoldered  into  ashes,  the  floor  was  hastily  swept 
clear,  and  the  bread  was  put  in. 

A  different  method  of  heating  is  employed 
to-day.  While  some  clever  men  were  trying  to 
better  the  old  hap-hazard  ways  of  making  bread, 
others  were  improving  the  oven.  Coal  was  sub- 
stituted for  wood,  a  separate  furnace  being  con- 
structed adjoining  the  oven,  with  a  flue  opening 
into  it.  A  funnel  over  the  mouth  of  the  flue 
permitted  the  smoke  to  escape. 

Even  this  mode  of  heating  was  found  to  be  too 
slow,  and  now  in  all  the  large  bakeries  steam  is 
the  baking  power.  Water  cannot  be  brought  to 
a  higher  temperature  than  two  hundred  and  twelve 
degrees,  the  boiling  point.  Heated  beyond  this 
point,  water  is  converted  into  steam.  But  there 
is  hardly  a  limit  to  the  degree  of  heat  to  which 
steam  can  be  raised.  You  may  understand  how 
valuable  is  this  property  of  steam  when  you  learn 
that  the  temperature  of  a  good-sized  oven  should 
be  five  hundred  degrees,  if  bread  is  to  be  well 
baked  in  it. 

In  a  steam-heated  oven,  the  ceiling  is  formed  of 
iron  pipes,  which  are  set  close,  side  by  side. 
Beneath  the  oven  floor,  similar  pipes  are  laid. 
All  these  pipes  project  into  a  furnace  at  the  back. 


A    MACHINE   BAKER.  47 

As  they  can  bear  a  strain  of  two  tons  to  the 
square  inch,  there  is  but  little  danger  of  ex- 
plosion. 

If  we  looked  into  one  of  the  tubes,  we  should 
see  that  the  bore  is  small,  being  in  fact  less  than 
half  the  diameter.  Water  is  confined  in  the  tubes 
at  their  furnace  ends,  and,  fire  being  applied, 
steam  quickly  fills  the  pipes  and  heats  the  oven  to 
the  requisite  degree.  The  temperature,  shown  on 
an  index,  is  regulated  by  flues,  and  can  be  varied 
at  will.  There  is  no  need  of  opening  the  door  to 
note  the  progress  of  the  baking,  for  above  the 
door  are  two  glass  eyelets.  One  has  an  electric 
light  before  it,  to  illumine  the  oven  ;  through  the 
other  the  workman  can  watch  the  baking.  No 
blaze  comes  into  the  oven  ;  smoke  and  smut  are 
absent ;  the  ashes  of  wood  and  the  sulphurous 
vapors  of  coal  are  unknown ;  the  bread  comes 
out  sweet  and  pure,  and  the  bakers  are  not 
exhausted  by  intense  heat. 


48  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  XIII. 
Crackers. 

It  was  the  increasing  demand  for  crackers  that 
forced  men  to  think  out  some  method  of  baking 
which  would  be  quicker  than  the  old  way.  The 
steam  oven,  composed  of  double  cases  of  iron, 
the  intervening  space  being  filled  with  fire-proof 
cement,  is  certainly  a  wonderful  advance  over  the 
brick-walled  little  room  used  for  baking  in  the 
past. 

But  the  articles  baked  have  been  improved  even 
more  than  the  means  of  baking  them.  No  boy  or 
girl  would  prefer  the  pilot  bread  of  our  grand- 
fathers, the  only  cracker  they  knew,  to  the  lemon 
snaps  obtainable  in  any  grocery  store  to-day. 

Crackers  differ  from  bread  in  two  particulars  : 
they  are  made  without  the  use  of  either  yeast  or 
any  other  raising  material,  and  they  are  baked 
till  they  contain  scarcely  any  water.  The  soft- 
ness of  fresh  bread  is  due  to  the  moisture  in  it. 

In  the  British  Islands  a  cracker  is  called  a  "  bis- 
cuit," a  word  meaning  twice  cooked.  It  is,  there- 
fore, not  applicable  to  any  cracker  made  nowadays. 
Rusks,  indeed,  have  to  go  into  the  oven  twice ; 
first,  they  are  lightly  baked  as  a  kind  of  bread  ; 


CRA  CKERS. 


49 


then  they  are  cut  into  slices,  and  again  put  into  a 
hot  oven  in  order  to  brown  both  sides.  Afterwards 
they  are  dried  by  a  lower  heat  continued  for  some 
hours. 

The  dough  of  crackers  is  so  stiff  that  it  cannot 
be  kneaded  by  hand.  It  was  customary  to  trample 
it  with  the  feet  years  ago.  Later  on,  the  dough, 
spread  on  a  heavy  table,  was  chopped  by  a  long 
wooden  bar,  hinged  at  one  end,  the  other  end  being 


grasped  by  the  workman.  Finally,  the  mightiest 
of  all  workers,  Steam,  was  invited  into  the  service 
of  the  cracker-bakers  ;  and  now  heavy  iron  arms 
and  rollers  mix  and  knead  the  stiff  dough  more 
readily  than  any  of  us  can  mold  clay. 

Most  crackers  consist  of  flour  and  water  with 
slight  additions  of  butter,  sugar,  and  flavoring 
substances.  Fruit  extracts,  ginger,  lemon  and 
orange  peel,  spices,  and  other  flavorers,  are  used 
in  making  fancy  crackers  and  cakes.  It  is  worth 
remembering  that    crackers    are    more    nutritious 


50  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

than  bread.  They  are  most  digestible  when  not 
very  tough,  and  when  they  have  been  slightly 
browned  by  baking. 

Sometimes  soldiers  of  the  great  countries  of 
Europe  are  ordered  away  to  distant  colonies.  To 
supply  crackers  to  such  troops  while  they  are 
in  savage  lands,  a  small  portable  oven  has  been 
invented.  It  looks  like  a  railroad  locomotive,  and 
is  constructed  on  the  principle  of  the  steam  oven. 
One  of  these  field  ovens  can  bake  the  daily  rations 
of  bread  or  hard-tack  for  one  thousand  soldiers, 
at  the  trifling  cost  of  sixty-five  cents  ! 

The  men  who  have  devised  these  skilful  methods 
of  making  bread  wholesome  and  cheap  are  counted 
among  the  greatest  benefactors  of  the  human  race. 
We,  who  will  soon  be  men,  should  strive  to  gain 
at  school  the  knowledge  which  will  enable  us  also 
to  be  of  some  service  to  the  world,  should  we  not  ? 


Lesson  XIV. 
Cakes. 


It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  boy  or  a  girl  that  has 
not  tasted  the  more  costly  products  of  the  modern 
cracker-factory.  You  know  some  of  their  names 
—  ginger-snaps,   macaroons,   vanilla  creams,   key- 


CAKES. 


51 


stones,  orange  cakes,  cream  cakes ;  and  there  are 
dozens  of  other  toothsome  bake-stuffs  relished  by 
both  old  and  young.  These  nice  articles  were  quite 
unknown  to  our  fathers  and  mothers  when  they  were 
school-children.  They 
had  only  doughy  gin- 
ger-bread or  caraway- 
seed  cakes. 

Young  people  sel- 
dom stop  to  reflect 
that  luxuries  at  the 
command  of  the  la- 
borer now  were  once 
beyond  the  reach  of 
the  wealthy.  You 
can  get  an  orange 
for  five  cents ;  your 
grandfather,  when  he 
was  a  schoolboy, 
could  not  buy  one 
for  twenty  times  that 
small  sum. 

How  has  this  for- 
tunate change  been'  brought  about  ?  By  study, 
thought,  experiment  ;  by  applying  science  to  the 
useful  arts.  Before  raisins  could  have  been  for- 
warded to  us  swiftly  and  safely  from  Smyrna,  or 
sugar  could  have  been  brought  here  cheaply  from 


52  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Havana,  or  spices  from  Batavia,  skilful  engineers 
must  have  devised  those  powerful  steam-engines 
which  are  able  to  drive  a  great  steamer,  with  its 
thousands  of  tons  of  freight,  against  wind  and 
waves.  Millions  of  bushels  of  delicious  tropical 
fruits  would  run  to  waste  in  their  own  lands,  if 
it  were  not  possible  to  transport  rapidly  the  pro- 
ducts of  one  country  to  the  markets  of  another. 

It  is  brain-work,  then,  not  hand-work,  that  has 
lowered  the  prices  of  all  the  good  things  we  eat. 
Visit  a  large  cracker-factory,  and  you  will  see  that 
nearly  all  the  labor  is  done  by  metal  and  wood. 
Human  hands  rarely  touch  the  factory's  produc- 
tions until  they  are  ready  to  be  packed  up  and 
sent  away  to  different  parts  of  the  globe.  Ma- 
chinery, as  complex  as  the  works  of  a  watch,  con- 
verts flour,  eggs,  milk,  butter,  sugar,  and  spices 
into  the  dainties  whose  names  we  read  at  the 
beginning  of  this  lesson. 

Notice  the  machines  for  mixing  ;  for  delivering 
the  dough  through  tubes  into  drums,  in  which  it  is 
kneaded ;  for  rolling  it  out  into  sheets  of  any  desired 
thinness  ;  for  punching  out  bake-stuffs  of  various 
sizes ;  for  gathering  up  the  scraps  and  passing 
them  into  an  iron  box.  So  skilfully  does  the  ma- 
chinery do  its  work  that  the  visitor  cannot  help 
thinking  it  is  alive  ! 

Every  known  leaf,  seed,  fruit,  and  flower,  whose 


THREE  KINGDOMS   OE  EOOD.  53 

flavor  pleases  the  palate,  is  pressed  into  the  service 
of  the  factory  ;  for  the  making  of  cake  has  been 
found  to  be  as  profitable  as  the  baking  of  crackers. 
The  masterpiece  of  the  fancy  baker's  art  is  the 
royal  bride-cake.  Its  picture,  on  page  51,  tells  us 
that  to  make  such  a  cake,  time,  care,  and  patience 
are  just  as  essential  as  the  rich  materials  of  which 
it  is  composed. 


Lesson  XV. 
Three  Kingdoms  of   Food. 

It  is  not  the  least  remarkable  point  of  distinction 
between  man  and  the  lower  animals,  that,  while 
these  limit  themselves  to  definite  sorts  of  proven- 
der, he  eats  of  almost  every  nutrient.  He  feeds 
on  the  beasts  of  the  field,  the  fowls  of  the  air,  the 
fishes  in  the  waters,  and  the  fruits  of  the  earth. 
If  viands  satisfactory  to  a  brute  creature,  should 
be  too  tough  or  too  coarse  for  the  refined  palate  of 
man,  he  will  so  change  them  by  cooking  that  they 
will  become  digestible. 

It  is  his  mind  that  gives  man  control  over  the 
products  of  the  earth  to  the  extent  of  transmuting 
apparently  useless  things  into  nourishment  for  his 
body.     The  power  of  his  intellect  has  proved  too 


54  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

strong  for  nature.  By  the  exercise  of  his  reason, 
man  has  discovered  the  strange  truth  that  all 
kinds  of  food  consist  of  the  same  elements.  The 
differences  between  the  various  nutritive  sub- 
stances result  from  the  peculiar  alterations  caused 
in  minerals,  by  plant  life  and  in  plants  by  animal 
life. 

It  is  owing  to  man's  researches  and  discoveries, 
rather  than  to  any  special  power  of  digestion,  that 
he  can  convert  some  parts  'of  almost  every  animal 
and  every  vegetable  into  victuals  more  or  less 
nourishing. 

The  three  kingdoms  of  nature  are  drawn  on  to 
supply  us  with  the  necessaries  of  life.  Our  great 
storehouses  of  food  are  the  animal  and  the  vege- 
table kingdom  —  the  mineral  is  resorted  to  for 
water  and  salt  only.  But  at  any  minute  of  our 
lives  we  may  be  impressively  reminded  that  air  is 
even  more  necessary  than  food. 

The  round  of  operations  by  which  we  obtain 
vegetal  food  from  the  earth  is  called  Agriculture. 
The  term  Horticulture  is  sometimes  applied  to 
garden  work,  especially  to  fruit  or  flower  garden- 
ing. The  main  object  of  either  garden  or  field 
cultivation  is  to  raise  on  a  given  space  the  great- 
est quantity  of  certain  vegetal  products,  due 
regard  being  paid  to  quality. 

Most  of   the  vegetables  shown  in   the   picture 


THREE  KINGDOMS  OF  FOOD.  55 

on  page  57  contain  a  much  larger  proportion  of 
water  than  the  grains  we  have  read  about.  Chem- 
ists can  prove  to  us  that  a  pound  of  wheat  has  in 
it  two  ounces  of  water — that  a  pound  of  turnips 
is  fifteen-sixteenths  water.  It  will  be  seen,  there- 
fore, that  there  is  very  little  nourishment  in  tur- 
nips.    They  are  fed  to  cattle  mostly. 

Garden  products  are  either  plants  from  warmer 
climates,  or  native  plants  improved  by  careful 
tillage  bestowed  on  them  for  centuries.  If  this 
care  were  not  constantly  exercised,  the  plants 
would  soon  change  back  to  their  wild  state,  and 
thus  become  useless  to  mankind. 

The  plow  is  not  used  in  gardens,  the  spade 
being  preferred  for  loosening  and  upturning  their 
soils.  It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that 
the  employment  of  hand-labor  in  gardening  is 
occasioned  solely  by  the  size  of  the  area  of  land 
cultivated.  The  true  reason  for  using  the  spade 
instead  of  the  plow  is  the  inability  of  the  latter 
tool  to  loosen  the  soil  deeply  enough  to  make  it 
fit  to  raise  vegetables  profitably.  Gardening,  like 
every  other  business,  is  carried  on  for  the  money 
made  in  it. 


56  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  XVI. 
Pod  Seeds. 

We  learned  that  in  those  varieties  of  the 
grasses  bearing  the  seeds  called  grains  each 
kernel  is  protected  by  a  light  husk  only.  There 
is  another  well-known  class  of  plants,  whose  seeds 
are  also  edible  but  are  enclosed  in  pods.  Such 
plants  are  termed  leguminous.  Peas  and  beans 
are  examples. 

The  Pea  is  a  climbing,  annual  plant.  The  seed, 
green,  is  a  favorite  early  vegetable  in  the  United 
States ;  the  ripened  seed,  dry,  is  more  used  in 
Europe.  Split  peas  are  produced  by  grinding  the 
seeds  lightly  between  plates  of  iron,  in  mills  built 
for  the  purpose.  This  operation  frees  the  seed- 
germ  from  its  envelope,  and  also  separates  each 
seed  into  two  portions. 

The  garden  pea  came  originally  from  the  borders 
of  the  Black  Sea.  It  has  long  been  grown  in 
Western  Europe,  and  was  brought  to  America  by 
the  early  settlers.  Green  peas  contain  a  consider- 
able quantity  of  sugar,  and  are  more  easily  digested 
than  peas  fully  ripened. 

Ripe  peas  require,  even  when  ground  into  meal, 
long  though  slow  boiling,  to  render  them  fit  for 


POD   SEEDS. 


57 


use.  But  when  they  are  properly  cooked,  they 
form  excellent  food.  Pea  soup  is  very  nutri- 
tious, if  an  equal  weight  of  meat  be  added  to  the 
weight  of  peas  used.  Still,  as  hot  water  cannot 
extract    all    the   valuable  properties  of    meat,   no 


soup  can  be  regarded  as  a  complete  substitute  for 
the  more  solid  foods,  —  bread,  cheese,  potatoes, 
meat. 

The  Bean  is  a  native  of  India.     This  plant  is 
grown  extensively  in  Italy  and  France.     The  broad, 


58  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

or  Windsor,  bean  is  used  unripe  as  a  vegetable.  It 
is  an  annual,  but,  unlike  the  other  beans,  is  not  a 
climbing  plant.  Its  black  and  white  flowers  are 
delightfully  fragrant.  Beans  are  wholesome  food, 
contain  a  great  deal  of  flesh-forming  matter,  and 
consequently  should  be  eaten  with  some  starchy 
nutrient,  like  rice,  or  with  a  fat  food,  like  pork. 
The  New  England  dish  of  baked  beans  and  pork 
is  therefore  well  calculated  to  satisfy  most  bodily 
needs,  though  persons  indulging  in  it  must  be 
engaged  in  hard  out-door  labor  to  digest  it 
easily. 

In  France  beans  are  in  general  use  ;  in  Mexico 
and  Central  America  they  constitute  the  principal 
sustenance  of  the  poorer  classes.  Our  own  working 
people  do  not  fully  appreciate  the  value  of  peas 
and  beans  as  articles  of  diet.  The  proportion  of 
muscle-forming  material  is  far  higher  in  the  legu- 
mens  than  in  the  cereals.  One  pound  of  the  best 
wheat-flour  cannot  produce  more  than  i2/z  ounces 
of  the  dry  substance  of  muscle  or  flesh ;  while 
one  pound  of  beans  will  furnish  3^  ounces  of  the 
same  dry  muscle-forming  substance. 


AN  EATABLE  POISON  ROOT.  59 

Lesson   XVII. 
An  Eatable  Poison  Root. 

The  Potato  seems  to  hold  a  middle  place  be- 
tween the  cereals  and  those  plants  whose  leaves 
are  consumed  as  food.  Potatoes,  though  richer 
in  nutritive  material  than  most  of  the  other 
tubers,  contain,  nevertheless,  seventy-five  per  cent 
of  water  —  that  is,  there  are  twelve  ounces  of 
water  in  every  pound  of  potatoes. 

It  is  surprising  to  learn  that  the  potato  belongs 
to  an  order  of  plants  all  of  which  are  more  or 
less  poisonous.  The  term  order,  as  here  used, 
means  a  class  of  plants  closely  related  to  one 
another  in  the  structure  of  their  flowers  and  fruit, 
and  having  more  points  of  resemblance  than  of 
difference.  The  order  including  the  potato  takes 
its  name  from  one  of  its  best-known  members,  — 
the  deadly  nightshade.  The  poison  is  generally 
found  in  the  fruit  or  in  the  leaves,  the  roots 
usually  being  harmless,  if  boiled.  Yet  so  danger- 
ous are  the  juices  of  plants  of  the  Nightshade 
order,  that  even  the  water  in  which  potatoes  have 
been  cooked  is  poisonous  to  a  certain  degree. 

Europe  knew  nothing  about  the  potato  until  the 
Spanish   conquest  of   South  America,  the   plant 


60  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

being  a  native  of  Chili  and  Peru.  It  grows  wild 
in  those  countries  now.  It  was  brought  to  Ireland 
by  Sir  John  Hawkins,  in  1565  ;  to  England  by  Sir 
Francis  Drake  in  1585,  and  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
in  1586.  Not,  however,  till  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  did  it  become  a  popular  article  of  food. 

Potatoes  thrive  best  in  a  light  dry  soil.  Seed 
is  not  used  to  raise  a  new  crop,  but  small  pieces  of 
the  tubers  are  planted,  each  piece  having  a  bud, 
or  eye,  in  it.  The  potato  requires  careful  tillage 
during  its  growth  ;  for  the  crop  must  be  kept  free 
from  weeds,  and  the  weak  stems  must  be  sup- 
ported by  having  the  earth  drawn  up  around  them 
when  the  plants  are  young. 

Potato  murrain  is  the  name  given  to  a  singular 
disease,  known  in  England  and  Ireland  since  1845. 
It  attacks  the  foliage  of  the  plants,  destroying  it, 
and  causing  rapid  decay  of  the  tubers.  The  mur- 
rain prevails  in  damp  warm  summers,  if  the  rain- 
fall is  heavy.  Such  weather  is  favorable  to  the 
growth  of  the  fungus  or  mildew  which  is  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  disease.  The  remedies 
seem  to  be  good  drainage  and  the  removal  of 
decaying  matter  from  the  soil. 

Starch  is  obtained  in  large  quantities  from 
potatoes,  by  crushing  them,  and  washing  the  pulp 
repeatedly  in  cold  water,  till  all  the  starch  is 
extracted.     The  water  is  then  evaporated,  leaving 


SOME    VEGETABLES.  6 1 

a  layer  of  pure  starch.  This  starch  by  roasting 
becomes  dextrin,  often  called  British  gum,  an 
article  useful  in  various  manufacturing  operations. 
Boiled  with  weak  sulphuric  acid,  potato  starch  is 
changed  into  glucose,  or  grape  sugar,  the  material 
of  which  cheap  candies  are  made.  Glucose,  by 
fermentation,  yields  alcohol.  Potatoes,  consisting 
mainly  of  starch  and  water,  cannot  be  considered 
a  complete  food.  They  should  be  used  in  addition 
to  lean  meat  or  some  other  nitrogenous  article 
of  diet. 


Lesson  XVIII. 
Some  Vegetables. 


The  Umbellifer  order  includes  many  poisonous 
plants,  and  also  some  edible  ones,  as  carrots, 
parsnips,  and  celery.  This  apparent  contradiction 
is  easily  explained.  The  poison  is  found  only  in 
the  leaves  and  stems.  It  is  developed  in  them 
by  the  action  of  sunlight.  Cooking  makes  the 
baneful  juice  in  some  of  the  plants  harmless ; 
their  nutritive  matter  is  then,  of  course,  eatable. 

The  carrot  has  been  cultivated  in  England  for 
four  centuries.  The  parsnip  has  been  a  garden 
vegetable  there  since  the  Roman  invasion,  which 
took  place  nearly  two  thousand  years  ago.     Carrots 


62  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

contain  no  starch,  unlike  parsnips.  The  former 
roots  though  more  watery  than  the  latter,  are  more 
nourishing,  are  liked  better,  and  are  much  more 
extensively  grown. 

Celery  in  its  wild  state  is  poisonous,  but,  as  cul- 
tivated in  this  country,  the  stems  are  kept  from 
the  air  and  light ;  hence  the  hurtful  juices  are  not 
developed,  and  the  plant  becomes  a  desirable 
addition  to  the  salad  list.  All  raw  vegetables, 
however,  are  not  readily  digested.  It  is  only 
when  celery  is  boiled  in  soup  that  we  obtain  the 
most  benefit  from  the  plant.  Water  composes 
nearly  seven-eighths  of  it.  The  peculiar  flavor 
and  odor  of  celery  are  due  to  an  essential  oil. 

Certain  plants  that  are  bulbs,  with  roots,  are 
classed  in  the  Lily  order.  Several  of  these  plants 
are  edible,  such  as  the  onion,  leek,  garlic,  and 
shallot.  They  owe  their  pungent  flavor  to  a  white 
volatile  oil,  containing  a  good  deal  of  sulphur. 

The  onion  is  a  native  of  Turkey  in  Asia,  and 
has  been  cultivated  for  many  centuries.  There 
are  numerous  varieties  of  the  plant.  The  largest 
bulbs  are  the  mildest  in  flavor.  Spanish  onions 
are  used  in  South-eastern  Europe  as  articles  of 
every-day  diet.  In  Africa,  in  the  fertile  countries 
south  of  the  Sahara,  onion  gardens  several  square 
miles  in  area  are  quite  common.  Scorched  onions 
are  employed  for  coloring  soups.     A  pound  of  the 


SOME    VEGETABLES.  63 

ordinary  onions  sold  in  our  markets,  would  not 
produce  a  quarter  of  an  ounce  of  muscle. 

The  flavor  of  garlic  is  so  powerful  that  this 
bulb  can  be  used  only  in  small  quantities.  It  is  a 
native  of  Southern  Europe,  where  it  is  in  common 
use.  Its  bulb  consists  of  ten  or  twelve  parts, 
termed  "cloves."  In  this  country  it  is  met  with 
only  in  sauces.  The  shallot  is  a  relative  of  the 
onion.  It  is  of  milder  flavor  than  the  latter,  and 
is  used  in  salads  and  pickles. 

The  sweet  potato  is  a  native  of  tropical  America, 
where  it  has  long  been  extensively  cultivated.  It 
is  also  a  field  product  of  North  Africa  and  of 
Southern  Europe.  The  presence  of  sugar  in  this 
plant's  tubers  differences  them  from  common 
potatoes.  The  quantities  of  water,  starch,  albu- 
men, and  mineral  matter  will  be  about  the  same  in 
a  pound  of  one  kind  of  potatoes  as  in  a  pound  of 
the  other.  The  sweet  potato  contains  three  per 
cent  of  sugar.  There  is  no  sugar  at  all  in  white 
potatoes. 


64  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  XIX. 
How  We  Eat  Potash. 

The  term  Cabbage  is  applied  to  more  than  one 
kind  of  plant  ;  but  the  firm-headed  variety  gener- 
ally known  by  that  name  was  first  cultivated  in 
England  about  two  hundred  years  ago.  It  is  prop- 
agated by  seed  sown  in  spring,  broadcast,  in  a 
prepared  plot  of  ground,  from  which  the  young 
plants  are  taken  and  set  in  rows  in  the  garden. 

The  numerous  plants  botanically  connected  with 
the  cabbage,  together  with  the  cabbage  itself,  do 
not  differ  much  in  nutritive  value  from  turnips 
and  carrots.  Valuable  mineral  matters,  as  potash, 
salts,  and  phosphates,  are,  however,  found  in  nota- 
ble quantities  in  most  of  the  plants  which  we  are 
to  read  about  in  this  lesson.  These  minerals  are 
needed  to  keep  the  body  in  perfect  health. 

Asparagus  stalks  are  sprouts  from  a  peculiarly 
shaped  root,  and  are  cut  when  the  root  has 
attained  the  length  of  a  few  inches.  Asparagus 
is  grown  from  seed.  The  young  plants  are  trans- 
planted to  a  bed  of  rich  loam,  where  they  are 
kept  three  or  four  years.  The  tender  shoots  are 
cut  five  or  six  inches  long,  bound  in  bunches, 
and  thus  brought  to  market. 


HOW    WE   EAT  POTASH.  65 

Tobacco,  red  pepper,  and  tomatoes  —  would  not 
these  vegetables,  stewed  together,  make  a  strange 
dish  ?  Yet  all  three  are  closely  related  to  one 
another,  and  to  the  potato,  and  are,  of  course,  in- 
cluded in  the  same  order  of  plants — the  Night- 
shade. The  tomato  is  an  annual.  It  came  probably 
from  Mexico,  and  shows  its  tropical  origin  yet  in 
demanding  a  good  deal  of  heat  to  ripen  its  fruit. 
As  it  is  more  than  seven-eighths  water,  its  nutri- 
tive properties  are  very  slight. 

Have  you  ever  eaten  a  mushroom  ?  It  belongs 
to  the  division  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  compris- 
ing those  plants  which  never  flower,  and  which 
differ  as  much  in  appearance  as  in  character. 
The  common  mushroom  is  not  noxious,  has  an 
agreeable  flavor,  contains  much  fat,  and  is  highly 
nitrogenous.  Yet  another  mushroom,  closely  re- 
sembling it,  is  extremely  poisonous,  and  has  been 
the  cause  of  many  fatal  mistakes. 

Take  a  mushroom  in  your  hand,  and  examine  it. 
How  easy  to  pull  it  into  pieces  !  Yet  it  is  the 
strongest  plant  in  the  world.  In  one  night  a 
mushroom  will  burst  through  a  concrete  sidewalk. 
If  a  boy  were  as  strong,  in  proportion  to  his 
weight,  he  could  lift  several  tons  with  his  little 
finger ! 

Radishes  may  be  cooked  with  advantage,  but 
they  are  usually  eaten  raw.     Their  chief  value  is 


66  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

their  pungent  flavor.  Lettuce,  a  refreshing  addi- 
tion to  solid  food,  contains  a  valuable  nutrient,  a 
mineral  salt  called  nitre.  This  would,  by  boiling 
the  plant,  be  drawn  out  into  the  water ;  hence 
lettuce  is  used  uncooked.  The  cucumber  is  a 
fruit,  like  the  melon,  the  squash,  and  the  pumpkin, 
and,  also  like  them,  belongs  to  the  Gourd  order. 
Cucumber  rind  should  never  be  eaten.  Hot-house 
cucumbers  are  better  than  those  raised  in  the 
open  air. 


Lesson  XX. 
Dairy  Products. 


No  less  important  than  bread  or  vegetables  are 
the  dairy  foods  —  milk,  butter,  and  cheese.  These 
enter,  in  one  form  or  another,  into  some  dish  at 
every  meal.  Milk  is  a  model  food.  It  is  the  best 
food  for  infants.  It  furnishes  all  the  nutrients 
needed  to  build  up  the  tissues  of  the  body. 
Sick  people,  especially  fever  patients,  often  have 
milk  prescribed  for  them  by  their  doctors.  Years 
ago  it  was  supposed  that  milk  would  be  injurious 
in  the  very  cases  in  which  it  is  now  regarded  as 
better  than  medicine. 

Some  kind  of  fat  or  oil  is  employed  as  a  food 
by  every  race  and  tribe  in  the  world.     The  peoples 


DAIRY  PRODUCTS. 


67 


living  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  the  Eskimos,  the 
Laplanders,  the  Samoyeds,  and  others,  eat  large 
quantities  of  animal  fat.     Young  and  old  of  these 


su-fct 


tribes  prefer  grease  to  sirloin 
steak.  An  Eskimo  baby  will 
eat  greedily  a  lump  of  putrid 
whale  blubber,  and  make  wry  faces  at  a  piece  of 
candy ! 

Cheese  contains  a  great  deal  of  nutritious  ma- 
terial in  a  condensed  form,  but  is  not  so  easily 
digested  as  milk  or  butter.  Some  nations  are 
much  fonder  of  cheese  than  others.  In  England 
it  is  a  common  article  of  the  every-day  diet  of 
farm    hands  and  laborers.     As  cheese  is    almost 


68  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

entirely  a  muscle-making  food,  they  are  quite  sen- 
sible in  selecting  it  for  daily  eating. 

If  milk,  butter,  and  cheese  were,  with  bread, 
the  only  items  on  our  bill  of  fare,  we  could  keep 
up  our  health  and  strength.  Meat  is  not  neces- 
sary to  sustain  life.  Many  persons  never  eat  any 
kind  of  animal  food.  Variety  in  diet  is,  however, 
best  for  all  of  us.  No  one  nutrient,  except  milk, 
contains  all  the  different  elements  needed  to 
supply  brain,  muscle,  nerves,  and  bones  with 
proper  nourishment.  And  we  should  soon  grow 
tired  of  trying  to  live  on  milk  exclusively. 

Milk  is  a  white  fluid  which  collects  in  certain 
glands,  called  the  mammary  or  milk  glands,  of 
those  animals  that  suckle  their  young.  In  ancient 
times  milk  from  cows  was  very  rare,  while  the 
milk  of  goats,  donkeys,  camels,  and  a  few  other 
animals,  was  common.  Now,  it  is  cow's  milk  that 
is  plentiful.  If  milk  is  not  readily  digested,  a 
little  lime-water  should  be  added  to  it. 

In  mountainous  countries,  like  Turkey  in  Asia, 
Greece,  and  Switzerland,  where  goats  are  numer- 
ous, their  milk,  which  is  richer  than  cow's  milk,  is 
an  important  article  of  diet.  In  those  lands  cows 
are  scarce  because  they  cannot  climb  mountains 
and  live  on  the  scanty  fare  that  will  satisfy  goats. 
In  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden,  a  common 
drink  is  sheep's  milk.     This  milk,  less  agreeable 


THE   COMPLETE  FOOD.  69 

in    taste    than    cow's    milk,   is    richer    and    more 
nourishing. 

The  Tartars  of  Southern  Russia  are  skilled  in 
making  a  preparation  of  milk  that  our  American 
doctors  now  prescribe  as  a  medicinal  food.  It  is 
made  by  allowing  milk  to  ferment  in  order  that 
carbonic  acid  gas  may  be  formed  from  the  sugar 
in  the  milk,  the  curds  and  whey  separating  at  the 
same  time.  Such  fermented  milk  is  called  kou- 
miss, and  is  both  wholesome  and  nutritious.  Some 
drug-stores  sell  imitations  of  it,  made  from  sweet- 
ened cow's  milk,  and  sealed  up  in  bottles.  The 
Arabs  drink  camel's  milk  ;  the  Laplanders,  rein- 
deer's milk.  Among  all  these  peoples,  and  others 
in  Europe,  milk  forms  an  important  item  of  the 
daily  food  not  only  of  children  but  also  of  adults. 


Lesson  XXI. 
The  Complete  Food. 


The  dairy  farmer  looks  on  his  cows  as  machines 
to  make  milk,  and  he  expects  from  each  of  them  a 
certain  quantity  of  this  liquid  for  a  certain  amount 
of  food.  A  cow  of  good  breed,  and  well  fed,  will 
give  twelve  or  fourteen  quarts  of  rich  milk  daily. 
The  famous  Holstein  cows,  grazing  on  the  luxu- 


7o 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


riant  meadows  of  Holland,  will  each  yield  every- 
day, on  the  average,  four  gallons  of  milk. 

How  much  milk    is  used   daily  in  the  United 
States  ?     It  is  not  possible  to  answer  this  question 


exactly,  but  we  may  judge  of  the  importance  of 
milk  as  a  food  by  considering  some  figures  drawn 
from  statistics  of  the  milk  industry  in  New  York 
City.  At  the  small  allowance  of  a  half-pint  of 
milk  to  each  person  every  day,  the  two  million 
persons    residing    or    transacting   business    there 


THE   COMPLETE  FOOD.  71 

consume  45,625,000  gallons  a  year.  This  ocean 
of  milk,  at  the  low  price  of  twenty-five  cents  a 
gallon,  would  cost  over  $11,400,000. 

To  supply  the  milk,  how  many  cows  are  needed, 
each  yielding  ten  quarts  a  day  ?  How  many  dol- 
lars do  the  cows  represent,  if  each  cow  is  worth 
fifty  dollars  ?  Try  to  calculate  the  wages  paid 
annually  to  the  milkmen,  the  cost  of  horses  and 
carts  and  harnesses,  the  rents  of  the  numerous 
storehouses,  and  the  value  of  the  milk-cans, — 
no  small  sum,  —  and  you  will  agree  with  your 
teacher  that  the  milk  trade  is  not  the  least  of 
New  York's  industries. 

A  good  deal  of  thought  has  been  given  to  the 
best  means  of  transporting  milk  by  railroad.  The 
swaying  and  jolting  of  the  cars  must  not  be 
allowed  to  churn  the  milk  on  the  journey.  And 
the  milk  must  be  cooled  before  being  sent  away  ; 
otherwise  it  would  turn  sour.  When  their  milk 
train  breaks  down,  or  is  blocked  by  a  snowdrift, 
New  Yorkers  suddenly  realize  how  great  a  busi- 
ness it  is  to  keep  up  the  milk  supplies  of  a  large 
city. 

When  milk  is  permitted  to  stand  for  some  time, 
the  first  change  that  occurs  is  the  rising  of  the 
cream.  If  you  should  look  at  some  milk  through 
a  microscope,  you  would  see  that  the  whiteness 
was  due  to  little  globules  of  fat.     You  would  also 


72 


FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 


notice  smaller  globules  of  a  darker  color.     These 
are  made  of  casein,  the  chief  nutrient  in  cheese. 

The  amount  of  cream  obtainable  depends  mainly 
on  the  amount  of  fat  in  the  milk.  Intelligent 
care  of  the  milk  will  augment  the  quantity  of 
cream.     The  temperature   of   the  dairy  must  be 


kept  low ;  the  milk  should  be  set  in  shallow  pans, 
and  these  should  not  be  disturbed  till  the  cream  is 
skimmed  off. 

The  next  change  in  the  milk  is  the  souring. 
This  takes  place  sooner  in  hot  weather  than  in 
cold.  In  the  souring,  an  acid,  known  as  lactic 
acid,  is  formed  from  the  sugar  in  the  milk,  and 


THE   COMPLETE  FOOD.  73 

the  milk  then  separates  into  curds  and  whey. 
The  curds  consist  mostly  of  casein,  but  they 
entangle  also  much  of  the  fat,  and  a  portion  of  the 
mineral  matter  which  milk  always  contains.  This 
separation  into  curds  and  whey  is  hastened  by 
heat.  The  whey  contains  one-fourth  of  the  nitro- 
genous matter  of  the  milk  —  that  is,  the  casein 
and  albumen  —  and  all  the  sugar,  and  some  of  the 
mineral  matter. 

Milk  varies  in  quality,  according  to  the  food 
given  to  the  cows.  Watery  food,  as  brewers' 
grains,  will  thin  the  milk ;  a  small  daily  supply  of 
oil-cake  will  enrich  it.  Milk  is  composed  of  water, 
eighty-six  per  cent ;  mineral  matters,  nearly  one 
per  cent ;  casein,  four  per  cent ;  milk  sugar,  some- 
times called  lactose,  five  per  cent  ;  and  fat,  four 
per  cent,  — that  is,  thirteen  per  cent  is  solid  mat- 
ter —  the  rest  is  water.  In  other  words,  out  of 
every  hundred  gallons  of  the  purest  milk,  eighty- 
six  gallons  of  water  could  be  distilled. 

On  account  of  the  tendency  of  milk  to  sour, 
men  were  compelled  to  invent  some  method  of 
preserving  it,  and  rendering  it  suitable  for  trans- 
portation. In  this  case,  as  in  nearly  every  other, 
necessity  was  the  mother  of  invention.  Condensed 
milk  is  nowadays  a  common  article  of  the  grocery 
trade.  Sugar  is  added  to  milk  undergoing  slow 
evaporation.     Before  taking  it  off   the   fire,  it    is 


74  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

suddenly  heated  to  a  higher  degree,  to  destroy 
mold  germs.  The  pale  straw-colored  sirup  is 
then  poured  into  tin  cans,  and  closed  from  the 
air  by  soldering. 


Lesson  XXII. 
Butter  and  Oleomargarine. 

When  the  old-fashioned  barrel-churn  was  em- 
ployed, two  or  three  hours  were  required  to 
produce  butter,  and  the  labor  was  almost  as  hard 
as  threshing  with  a  flail.  Now  a  churning  is 
completed  in  twenty  minutes,  or  in  even  less 
time,  by  means  of  steam  machinery.  Boxes  with 
paddles  inside  are  used  for  churns.  The  paddles, 
rotating  rapidly,  beat  the  cream  till  the  butter 
forms. 

Perhaps  most  of  the  butter  now  sold  in  this 
country  comes  from  creameries.  These  establish- 
ments might  properly  be  termed  butter-factories. 
Creamery  butter  is  of  superior  quality,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  it  is  made  according  to  scientific 
principles.  Attention  is  paid  to  the  purity  of  the 
milk,  to  the  cleanliness  of  the  tanks  and  utensils, 
and  to  the  coolness  of  the  building.  The  exact 
temperature  necessary  for  successful  results  in 
the  rising  of  the  cream  and  in  the  churning  pro- 


BUTTER   AND    OLEOMARGARINE. 


75 


cess  is    always  maintained.     Ice    is   employed  to 
cool  the  air,  steam  or  hot  water  to  warm  it. 

The   taint,   or   unpleasant    taste,   which    butter 
sometimes  has,  can  be  avoided  by  preventing  the 


access  of  any  odor  or  offensive  smell  to  the  butter. 
Nothing  will  absorb  odors  or  flavors  more  quickly 
than  butter.  The  peculiar  smell  of  cheese,  of 
meat,  of  any  kind  of  decaying  animal  or  vegetable 
matter,  will  be  readily  absorbed  by  any  butter  near 
by.  If  strongly  flavored  food  has  been  given  to 
the  cows,  the  flavor  will  be  noticed  more  distinctly 
in  the  butter  than  in  the  milk. 


76 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


Butter  always  has  some  salt  added  to  it.  If  the 
salt  is  not  perfectly  pure,  it  will  give  a  bitter  taste 
to  the  butter.  But  not  more  than  two  ounces  of 
salt  should  be  mixed  with  each  pound  of  butter, 
even  if  the  butter  is  to  be  exported.     When  the 


cows  are  kept  in  stalls  all  the  time,  as  in  winter, 
receiving  no  green  fodder,  the  butter  made  from 
their  milk  then  is  not  yellow,  but  pale.  Such 
butter  is  not  so  readily  salable ;  and  to  give  a 
better  color  to  it,  a  substance  known  as  annatto 
is  mixed  with  the  cream. 

Annatto  is  not  a  poison,  but  its  use  to  cheat 


BUTTER  AND   OLEOMARGARINE.  77 

people  into  believing  that  an  inferior  article  is 
a  superior  one,  should  be  condemned.  Watered 
milk  is  often  made  to*  look  like  pure  milk,  by  stir- 
ring in  annatto.  This  dye,  eaten  freely,  would 
cause  serious  injury.  Yet  its  use  in  coloring  but- 
ter and  milk  is  very  common. 

An  imitation  butter  is  now  made  very  largely  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe.  It  is  called  butterine, 
or  oleomargarine,  and  is  manufactured  directly 
from  animal  fat,  and  not  from  cream.  Nor  is  the 
fat  used  beef  tallow  only.  Bone-fat  and  horse-fat 
often  form  the  basis  of  the  butterine  of  Europe 
and  sometimes  of  American  oleomargarine.  Pure 
tallow,  carefully  prepared,  could  not  injure  health  ; 
but  it  is  a  fraud  on  our  pockets  to  hand  us  "  oleo  " 
when  we  pay  for  the  much  more  costly  article  of 
butter. 

Hand-work  in  butter-making  is  rapidly  falling 
into  disuse.  Even  milking  is  now  done  to  a  lim- 
ited extent  by  machine-power.  It  is,  as  yet,  an 
odd  sight  — a  machine  drawing  milk  from  a  cow. 
In  most  creameries,  milk  is  poured  into  deep  cans 
set  in  a  trough.  Through  this  runs  constantly 
a  stream  of  ice-cold  water.  The  cream  rises  in 
one-third  of  the  time  required  in  an  ordinary  dairy 
or  cellar,  and  the  skim  milk  is  left  quite  sweet,  and 
fit  to  curdle  for  cheese. 

Still   more  quickly   is  the  cream  taken  out  of 


78 


FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 


the  milk,  by  the  "separator,"  a  machine  invented 
in  the  United  States.  This  drives  the  cream  out 
of  the  milk,  while  it  is  warm.  The  fresher  the 
milk  is,  the  better.  In  the  picture  on  this  page, 
the  separator  is  shown  with  the  cream  running 
from    one   tube,    and    the    milk    from    the   other. 


Metal  beaters,  revolving  by  steam-power,  thou- 
sands of  times  in  a  minute,  within  the  iron  cham- 
ber, cause  the  cream  to  separate  and  to  rise  to 
the  top,  whence  it  issues  through  a  vent. 

A  later  invention  is  a  new  churn  of  immense 
size,  that  makes  butter  from  new  milk  inside  of  a 
quarter  of  an  hour.     It  will  also  make  more  butter 


FAT  FROM   TREES.  79 

out  of  a  given  quantity  of  milk  than  any  other 
churn,  and,  after  making  the  butter,  it  washes  the 
buttermilk  out  of  it  !  Now,  one  may  think  that 
all  we  need  is  a  machine  to  fashion  the  butter 
into  blocks,  and  to  weigh  them.  Such  a  machine  is 
already  in  the  market.  It  divides  a  mass  of  butter 
into  cubes,  each  cube  weighing  from  one-quarter 
of  a  pound  to  five  pounds,  as  may  be  desired, 
stamps  the  cubes,  and  packs  them  in  little  boxes. 


Lesson  XXIII. 
Fat  from  Trees. 


Some  foods,  as  lean  meat  and  cheese,  when 
digested,  change  into  muscle ;  others,  as  butter 
and  salad  oil,  keep  up  the  vital  warmth  of  the 
body.  Fat  is,  therefore,  necessary  to  the  daily 
diet  of  man,  no  matter  in  what  climate  he  lives. 

The  Hindoo,  working  under  the  scorching  sun 
of  India,  is  just  as  fond  of  ghcc,  melted  butter,  as 
the  Eskimo  is  of  seal  fat.  It  is  true,  however, 
that  a  great  deal  more  fatty  food  is  needed  by  the 
human  system  in  cold  weather  than  in  summer 
time.  We  can  eat  butter  all  the  year  round,  but  it 
is  in  winter  only  that  pork  or  bacon  seems  to  be 
needed. 


So  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

To  us  butter  is  so  familiar  that  we  naturally 
suppose  every  other  nation  uses  it.  Yet  many 
civilized  countries  do  not  produce  as  much  of  it  in 
a  year  as  would  supply  the  United  States  for  even 
one  day.  In  Spain,  Portugal,  Southern  France, 
Italy,  and  Greece,  butter  is  both  rare  and  bad. 
The  working  people  of  those  countries  never  eat 
it.  It  is  scarcely  ever  seen  even  on  the  tables  of 
the  rich.  It  is  unknown  in  tropical  America. 
The  swarming  millions  of  Africa  have  never 
heard  of  it.  In  vast  territories  of  Asia,  butter 
would  be' considered  as  odd  an  article  of  diet  as 
the  baked  monkey  of  Brazilian  Indians  would  be 
regarded  in  your  town.  What  takes  the  place  of 
butter  in  all  those  lands  ?     Oil,  animal  or  vegetable. 

Southern  Europe  uses  olive  oil  largely.  This  oil 
was  commonly  employed  here  for  salad  dressing  ; 
but  as  cotton-seed  oil  is  now  very  much  cheaper, 
it  is  too  often  substituted  for  the  finer-flavored, 
but  more  costly,  olive  oil.  The  former  oil  is  just 
as  wholesome  as  the  latter.  The  superiority  of 
olive  oil  consists  in  its  more  agreeable  taste. 
Every  fall  large  quantities  of  cotton-seed  oil  are 
sent  over  to  Italy,  bottled  there,  labelled  as  genuine 
olive  oil,  and  returned  to  this  country,  being  in- 
voiced at  our  custom-houses  as  products  of  Italian 
olives.  The  fraud  is  difficult  of  detection,  for  one 
oil  is  similar  in  composition  to  the  other. 


FAT  FROM   TREES.  8 1 

The  oils  and  fats  form  a  distinct  and  important 
section  of  the  group  of  heat-giving  foods.  Like 
starch  and  sugar,  they  do  not  change  into  muscu- 
lar tissue,  but  their  power  of  maintaining  the 
heat  of  the  body  is  nearly  two  and  one-half  times 
that  of  the  starchy  nutrients.  Wax  is  also  a 
nutritive  substance,  like  fat,  but  differs  from  fat 
in  not  containing  glycerine. 

The  Shea-tree  of  North-western  Africa  yields  a 
fat  which  is  eaten  by  the  natives.  European 
travellers  who  have  tasted  it,  declare  it  equal  to 
butter.  Many  kinds  of  fruits,  nuts,  and  seeds  are 
eaten  mainly  on  account  of  the  oil  they  contain. 

No  other  member  of  the  vegetable  kingdom 
furnishes  so  much  oil  as  a  species  of  palm-tree 
that  flourishes  on  the  north-west  coast  of  Africa. 
It  is  called  the  oil  palm.  One  hundred  pounds  of 
palm-nut  pulp  will  produce  seventy-two  pounds  of 
oil.  One  hundred  pounds  of  butter  contain  no 
more  than  eigh'ty-seven  pounds  of  fat.  But  you 
would  say  that  so  dry  a  substance  as  flour  has  no 
oil  whatever  in  it.  Flour  has,  however,  about  one 
per  cent  of  its  weight  oil.  One  pound  of  oil  can 
be  obtained  from  one  hundred  pounds  of  flour. 
One  hundred-weight  of  fresh  oatmeal  will  afford 
ten  pounds  of  oil.  Here  is  one  reason  why  this 
latter  preparation  of  grain  is  more  nutritious  than 
flour. 


82  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

Besides  its  great  use  as  a  producer  of  heat,  and, 
therefore,  of  force,  fat  or  oil  is  the  chief  material 
of  that  layer  of  fatty  tissue  existing  beneath  the 
skin,  and  retaining  the  warmth  in  the  body.  Dur- 
ing long  abstinence  from  food,  this  layer  may  be 
dissolved  and  taken  back  into  the  blood,  thus 
serving  the  purpose  of  sustaining  life. 

The  remarkable  food  called  dika-bread,  used  on 
the  north-west  coast  of  Africa,  is  three-quarters 
pure  fat.  The  fruit  from  which  this  "  bread  "  is 
made  is  about  the  size  of  a  goose-egg.  It  has  a 
large  white  almond-shaped  kernel.  The  kernels, 
crushed,  heated,  and  pressed,  form  this  so-called 
bread,  which  is  largely  consumed  by  the  natives  of 
the  Guinea  Coast.  The  taste  resembles  that  of  a 
mixture  of  roasted  cocoa  and  burned  flour.  Wal- 
nuts, filberts,  peanuts,  and  almonds  may  be  men- 
tioned as  other  nuts  which  are  also  rich  in  oil,  and 
which  could  be  used  for  food,  if  necessity  called 
for  such  a  use  of  them. 


CHEESE.  83 

Lesson    XXIV. 
Cheese. 

The  art  of  cheese-making  is  older  than  written 
history.  A  primitive  kind  of  cheese-press  figures 
occasionally  in  Egyptian  sculpturing,  done  fifteen 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  In  England,  cheese 
has  been  known  since  the  Roman  occupation. 
The  Saxon  word  ccse  and  the  Welsh  eastern 
mean,  each,  "to  curdle;"  and  it  is  worthy  of 
notice  that  cheese  is  made  by  the  curdling  of  the 
casein  in  milk. 

The  separation  of  sweet  milk  into  curds  and 
whey  is  the  first  step  in  the  preparation  of  cheese. 
On  the  addition  of  an  acid  to  milk,  the  casein, 
which  comprises  most  of  the  solids,  turns  into 
curds,  the  milk-sugar  remaining  in  the  whey, 
a  slightly  clouded  liquid,  which  is  composed  largely 
of  the  water  of  the  milk.  This  change  is  effected, 
not  by  the  employment  of  any  of  the  ordinary 
acids,  but  by  means  of  rennet. 

Rennet  is  a  liquid,  prepared  from  the  stomach 
of  the  calf,  by  first  cleaning  the  stomach  and  then 
soaking  it  in  brine  for  a  few  days.  The  brine  is 
drained  off  and  bottled  for  use.  A  half-pint  of  it 
will    curdle   four   hundred   quarts   of   milk.     The 


84 


FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 


milk  must  be  heated  before  the  rennet  is  added  to 
it.  Generally,  the  thermometer  must  show  that 
the  milk's  temperature  is  84°  Fahrenheit,  or  the 
rennet   will    not  be    poured    in.     After   the    curd 


begins  to  form,  the  heat  is  increased  to  980  ;  at 
this  degree,  the  complete  souring  of  the  mass 
occurs. 

The  whey  must  be  well  strained  from  the  curd, 
or  the  cheese  would  ferment,  turn  sour,  and  spoil. 
If  any  cream  should  rise,  the  whole  vat  of  milk 


CHEESE. 


85 


must  be  stirred  again  and  again.  To  drain  off  the 
whey,  the  curd  must  be  cut  into  blocks,  worked 
back  and  forth  with  a  four-barred  paddle  wired 
across   the    bars,  then  turned  with  a  large  skim- 


ming-dish, and  cut  again,  prior  to  being  lifted  into 
the  cheese-vat. 

The  curd  is  covered  with  canvas,  and  then 
pressed  in  the  vat  till  it  is  hard  and  nearly  dry. 
Next,  the  curd  is  broken  up,  mixed  with  salt  — 
a  pound  of  salt  to  twenty  pounds  of  cheese  usually 
—  and  put  into  the  press.  Cheese-presses  differ 
in  respect  of  the  form  given  to  the  curd.     You 


86  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

have  seen  cheese  in  various  shapes,  and,  therefore, 
you  know  that  a  Brie  or  an  Edam  cheese  bears 
but  slight  resemblance  to  the  large  cheeses  made 
in  our  own  country. 

For  a  week  or  ten  days  the  cheese  is  taken  out 
of  the  press  every  day,  examined  for  signs  of 
mold,  rubbed  with  salt,  and  returned  to  its  box 
frame.  Finally,  it  is  washed,  rubbed  with  butter, 
and  then  stored  away  to  ripen. 

Hand-made  cheese  is  a  common  dairy-product  of 
several  European  countries  —  notably  of  Switzer- 
land. In  the  United  States,  only  factory  cheese  is 
made.  We  export  to  various  countries  over  one 
hundred  million  pounds  of  it  yearly.  Our  Ameri- 
can cheese  is  made  from  whole  milk,  like  the 
English  Cheshire.  Cheese  obtained  from  milk 
from  which  the  cream  has  been  removed,  is  called 
skim-milk  cheese.  Dutch  cheese  is  an  example. 
Neufchatel  and  some  other  kinds  of  soft  cheese 
contain  considerable  cream. 

Cheddar  and  Stilton  are  names  applied  to  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  cheese,  each  kind,  however,  being 
of  high  grade.  They  are  made  with  great  care, 
and  are  not  fully  ripened  until  about  a  year  from 
making  them.  Stilton  contains  more  cream  than 
Cheddar,  is  nearly  self-drained,  and  is  shaped 
under  very  slight  pressure.  Roquefort  and  Brie 
cheeses  are  products  of  French  dairies.     Roquefort 


WHAT  OTHERS  EAT  87 

is  the  highest-priced  cheese  sold  in  the  American 
market. 

A  moist,  crumbly  cheese  is  more  readily  digested, 
if  fairly  rich  in  cream,  than  a  dryer  skim-milk  one. 
As  there  is  but  very  little  heat-giving  nutriment 
in  cheese,  it  should  be  eaten  with  bread,  rice,  or 
some  other  starchy  food.  Cheese  is  a  muscle- 
former,  and  also  contains  much  bone-making 
material. 

The  blue  mold  which  makes  its  appearance  in 
old  and  ripe  cheese,  such  as  Stilton,  is  a  fungus, 
said  to  be  caused  by  leaving  the  broken  curd  open 
to  the  air  before  pressing.  Cheese  is  naturally 
pale-yellow  in  color.  The  dark-yellow  and  orange 
hues,  seen  in  foreign  cheeses,  are  due  to  annatto, 
the  same  dye  that  is  used  to  color  milk.  One 
pound  of  cheese  contains  as  much  nourishment  as 
two  pounds  of  beef. 


Lesson   XXV. 
What  Others  Eat. 


Man  must  have  variety  in  his  fare.  The  daily 
waste  of  his  body  has  to  be  repaired  by  food  con- 
taining all  the  elements  needed  to  make  blood, 
muscle,  fat,   nerve-tissue,  and   brain    matter.     In 


88  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

Europe  and  in  America  men  have  hunted  high  and 
low,  on  land,  and  in  the  sea,  to  satisfy  their  crav- 
ings for  variety  in  diet.  There  are  not,  perhaps, 
ten  persons  in  a  thousand  who  will  eat  a  meal  con- 
sisting of  only  one  article  of  food,  provided  their 
choice  of  dishes  is  not  limited.  Brute  creatures 
are  restricted  to  one  sort  of  provender  usually. 
They  feed  on  fish,  flesh,  or  vegetables  ;  man  is  the 
universal  eater. 

There  is  scarcely  a  living  thing  that  flies  in  the 
air,  swims  in  the  water,  or  stirs  on  the  land,  that 
is  not  forced  to  minister  to  man's  appetite.  Scrip- 
ture tells  us,  "  Every  moving  thing  that  liveth 
shall  be  meat  for  you."  To  any  one  noting  the 
wide  and  varied  range  of  the  animal  food  devoured 
by  human  beings,  the  Scriptural  promise  seems  to 
be  almost  literally  fulfilled. 

The  nose  of  the  moose  is  considered  a  dainty 
mouthful  in  Canada.  Sharks'  fins,  birds'  nests,  and 
ducks'  tongues  are  eaten  in  China.  The  Chumars 
of  India  eat  the  flesh  of  animals  that  have  died  of 
disease,  and  will  touch  no  other  meat.  Elephant's 
trunk  is  a  table  dainty  in  Africa.  Rat  pie  may  be 
procured  in  Paris  restaurants  :  and  the  negroes  of 
Brazil,  like  the  black  people  of  Australia,  eat  every 
rat  they  can  catch.  In  the  last-named  country, 
kangaroo  tail  is  regarded  as  a  luxury  for  the 
dinner-tables  of  even  wealthy  and  cultivated  Cau- 
casians. 


WHAT  OTHERS  EAT.  89 

Both  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Persians  were  fond 
of  camel's  flesh,  and  the  Arabs  of  our  own  day 
consider  young  camel,  well  roasted,  superior  to 
veal.  The  Tartars  cut  the  hump  into  slices,  dis- 
solve these  in  tea,  and  drink  this  oily  tea  as  a 
beverage.  In  the  Barbary  States,  camel's  tongue, 
salted,  is  a  common  article  of  diet. 

In  Kordofan  the  giraffe  is  hunted  for  its  flesh, 
and  in  South  Africa  the  Hottentots  deem  the 
marrow  of  the  animal  a  delicacy  of  the  highest 
value.  The  flesh  of  the  whale  furnishes  food  to 
the  natives  in  many  countries  —  New  Zealand, 
Brazil,  Japan,  several  West  India  islands,  and  espe- 
cially the  Arctic  regions.  The  Eskimo,  however, 
regards  a  seal-steak  as  the  best  of  earthly  viands. 
The  inhabitants  of  Queensland  esteem  sea-cow 
very  highly  as  a  breakfast  dish,  and  the  Malays  of 
the  Dutch  East  Indies  agree  with  them. 

The  nobles  of  England  thought  porpoise  meat 
an  excellent  article  for  their  feasts,  even  so  late  as 
Queen  Elizabeth's  reign ;  and  the  modern  Green- 
landers  find  porpoise  oil  the  most  delicious  of  all 
drinks.  Broiled  canary  is  a  favorite  dish  in  cafes 
in  the  Madeira  Islands.  In  Jamaica  parrots  can 
be  readily  obtained,  served  up  for  eating  in  any 
style  you  wish.  No  doubt  it  would  require  several 
big  canaries  to  give  a  hungry  boy  meat  enough  for 
dinner ;     but    it    would   take   more   than    several 


90  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

hungry  boys  to  finish  at  one  dinner  a  bird  used  by 
South  Africans  as  food  —  the  ostrich. 

Green  turtle  is  agreeable  to  most  American 
palates,  yet  which  of  us  would  not  refuse  to  eat  its 
brother  reptile,  the  crocodile  ?  This  scaly  monster 
is,  however,  in  high  favor  with  the  epicures  of 
Siam.  Another  reptile,  the  iguana,  the  most 
hideous-looking  of  all  crawling  things,  is  greedily 
devoured  by  the  Indians  of  Brazil.  West  India 
negroes  are  very  fond  of  fried  snake,  preferring 
it  to  chicken. 

It  is  marvellous  to  note  what  the  human  stom- 
ach will  digest.  Flies'  eggs,  gathered  from  putrid 
fish,  are  swallowed  in  China  ;  silkworms  in  Mada- 
gascar ;  beetles  in  South  America,  and  crickets  in 
East  Africa.  New  Caledonians  will  eat  spiders  in 
preference  to  any  other  food.  Bees  are  eaten 
in  Ceylon  ;  ants  in  Hindostan  ;  grasshoppers  in 
Africa  ;  centipedes  in  Brazil ;  caterpillars  in  Aus- 
tralia, and  devil-fishes  in  France. 

In  our  own  country,  these  strange  articles  of 
food  will  probably  long  remain  strange.  Yet  the 
people  who  eat  them  are  as  strong  and  healthy, 
apparently,  as  if  they  had  never  tasted  any  meat 
but  beef  or  mutton. 


THE  ANIMAL    THIRD  IN   VALUP:.         91 

Lesson   XXVI. 
The  Animal  Third  in  Value. 

The  use  of  meat  increases  with  the  increase  in 
population.  As  the  world  progresses  in  civili- 
zation, it  consumes  more  animal  food,  regarding 
it  as  the  best  restorer  of  body  or  brain  exhausted 
by  daily  labor.  Any  race  eating  but  little  meat  is 
a  weak  race.  Starchy  foods  and  feeble  men 
occupy  the  same  zone.  To  acquire  and  keep  up 
a  good  meat -appetite,  man  must  live  and  work 
several  degrees  from  the  Equator.  And  in  this 
truth  the  whole  future  of  the  meat  question  is 
contained. 

The  Northern  races,  who  are  the  meat-consum- 
ing races,  are  steadily  augmenting  in  numbers  and 
gaining  possession  of  the  earth.  Thus  the  future 
demand  for  meat  must  be  immense  —  such  as  will 
tax  the  pasture  regions  of  the  world  to  satisfy. 

The  United  States  has  about  fifty  million  sheep 
and  the  same  number  of  horned  cattle.  Russia  is 
the  only  other  country  having  any  pretensions  to 
compete  with  us  in  wealth  in  cows  and  oxen  ;  yet 
that  great  empire  owns  only  thirty  millions  of 
those  useful  beasts.  The  Argentine  Republic  and 
Australia    possess,    each,    more    sheep  than    the 


92  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

United  States,  because  land  is  cheaper  and  less 
fertile  in  those  countries.  Sheep  may  be  pastured 
on  soil  that  cannot  raise  wheat. 

Pork  holds  the  third  place  in  the  nutritive 
values  of  the  animal  foods,  ranking  after  beef  and 
mutton.  Almost  any  kind  of  meat  is  easier  of 
digestion  than  vegetables,  and  meat  contains  a 
very  much  larger  portion  of  the  materials  that 
form  muscle  and  brain.  But  we  need  fat  also  to 
assist  respiration  and  to  maintain  the  internal 
heat.  For  these  purposes  pork  is  an  admirable 
food.     It  is  a  favorite  meat  all  over  the  world. 

To  gain  an  idea  of  the  importance  of  the  pork 
business  of  the  Union,  we  must  calculate  the  value 
of  the  hogs  first.  These  number  sixty  million. 
Then  let  us  set  down  the  figures  representing  the 
aggregate  selling-price  of  the  multitudes  of  these 
animals  slaughtered  every  year.  One  city,  Chi- 
cago, kills  over  five  million  hogs  annually.  Cin- 
cinnati, Louisville,  Milwaukee,  Kansas  City,  St. 
Louis,  and  Indianapolis  are  other  centres  of  the 
pork-packing  industry.  The  wages  paid  to  hand- 
workers in  this  employment  amount  yearly  to 
many  millions  of  dollars. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  swine  in  the  United 
States  were  nearly  all  of  the  white  breed,  now  the 
black  is  most  numerous.  The  latter  breed  has 
been  found  to  have  hardier   skins,  and  is,  there- 


THE  BEST  FARE.  93 

fore,    less    affected    than    the   white    variety   by 
exposure  to  sun  and  rain  and  frost. 

Germany,  France,  England,  Austro-Hungary  — 
all  these  countries  use  large  quantities  of  pork. 
We  export,  year  after  year,  about  $100,000,000 
worth  of  pork-products,  and  yet  we  eat  at  home  an 
amount  of  them  much  greater  in  value  than  even 
that  enormous  quantity. 


Lesson  XXVII. 
The  Best  Fare. 


Chemists  tell  us  that  lean  meat  contains  a  large 
quantity  of  that  important  food  element,  nitrogen, 
in  its  most  digestible  form.  Were  there  no  nitro- 
gen in  the  food  we  eat,  death  would  soon  overtake 
us.  Fine  flour  has  but  very  little  of  this  necessary 
nutriment.  A  famous  French  surgeon  fed  two 
large  dogs  on  white  bread  and  water  in  order  to 
ascertain  how  long  such  a  diet  would  support 
animal  life.  Both  dogs  died  in  forty  days.  But 
dogs  kept  well  and  strong  that  were  fed  on  bread 
made  from  whole-wheat  meal  —  bread  containing 
the  nitrogen  of  the  wheat  as  well  as  its  starch. 

How  does  meat,  the  food  richest  in  nitrogen, 
strengthen   the    body  ?     By    repairing    exhausted 


94 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


muscles.  As  no  other  articles  of  diet  than  those 
in  which  nitrogen  is  found  can  do  that  service  for 
us,  we  may  rightly  call  such  nitrogenous  foods 
muscle-formers.  Again,  meats  not  only  furnish 
material  for  brain  and  nerve  tissue,  but  also  con- 
tribute carbon,  or  fat,  to  the  system.     Carbon  is 


the   chemical   name   of  the   food   element  which 
maintains   the  body's  vital  heat. 

Americans  consider  beef  the  meat  most  agree- 
able to  the  palate,  most  easy  of  digestion,  and 
most  strengthening  to  the  human  frame.  So 
great  is  our  demand  for  beef  that  the  price  of 
choice   cuts   is   high,  though  this   country  raises 


THE  BEST  FARE.  95 

more  cattle  than  any  other  country  in  either 
hemisphere. 

As  beef-eaters,  the  English  people  rank  next  to 
us.  The  typical  Englishman  is  usually  pictured 
as  a  jolly,  heavy-bodied  farmer,  and  is  called  John 
Bull.  Away  back  as  far  as  the  days  of  King 
Henry  VIII.,  a  company  of  men  in  the  king's 
service,  known  as  Yeomen  of  the  Guard,  were 
appointed  to  the  ridiculous  service  of  guarding 
the  sideboard  in  which  the  royal  dishes  were 
placed.  Such  a  piece  of  furniture  was  then 
termed  a  buffet,  and  the  guards  were  named 
buffcticrs.  The  ignorant  classes  changed  this 
name  into  "  beef-eaters,"  and  Beef-eaters  the  Yeo- 
men were  called  for  three  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
They  were  disbanded  in  1887,  and  their  mediaeval 
uniform  is  now  to  be  seen  only  in  pictures. 

How  quiet,  patient,  and  faithful  an  ox  is  !  His 
terrible  head  and  horns  cause  him  to  appear  fero- 
cious in  the  extreme ;  yet,  having  seen  him  at 
work,  we  know  that  he  is  one  of  the  gentlest  of 
beasts.  In  a  pretty  fable,  the  seemingly  fierce 
creature,  addressing  a  beautiful  young  lady,  asks, 
"  If  a  visitor  from  some  other  planet  saw  us  both 
now,  would  he  not  be  astonished  to  learn  that  I 
am  not  going  to  eat  you,  but  that  you  are  going 
to  eat   me?" 

Wild  cattle  were  common  in  Europe  two  thou- 


g6  FOODS  A  AD   BEVERAGES. 

sand  years  ago.  A  splendid  breed  once  made  the 
forests  in  the  North  of  England  celebrated  hunting 
resorts  for  fearless  sportsmen.  These  cattle  were 
pure  white  in  color,  with  black  muzzles  and  long 
white  horns  tipped  with  black.  In  two  or  three 
private  parks  a  few  specimens  of  this  noble  stock 
are  still  to  be  seen.  The  vast  herds  of  cattle, 
which  once  ran  wild  over  our  own  western  prai- 
ries, were  descendants  of  the  tame  species  brought 
to  the  New  World  by  the  Spanish  settlers.  The 
English  wild  cattle  came  from  some  drove  intro- 
duced into  the  island  during  the  Roman  occu- 
pation. 


Lesson  XXVIII. 

Prizes  for  Improvement. 

English  cattle  are  the  finest  in  the  world. 
For  many  years  past,  farmers,  graziers,  cattle- 
breeders —  all  persons  in  England  interested  in 
cows  and  dairy  products  have  united  in  encoura- 
ging the  higher  development  of  stock-raising.  The 
population  of  Great  Britain  has  rapidly  increased 
during  this  century ;  and,  as  fast  as  cities,  towns, 
and  villages  multiplied,  pasture  ground  grew  less 
in   area.     The   graziers  were  obliged  to  have  re- 


PRIZES  FOR   IMPROVEMENT. 


97 


course  to  science  to  aid  them  in  producing  beeves 
enough  to  supply  the  demands  of  the  markets. 
The  cost  of  meat  has,  however,  advanced,  but  the 
working  classes  earn  higher  wages  than  they 
received  formerly  ;    so  that  they  can  afford  to  buy 


dear   meat  more  often   than   their   fathers  could 
purchase  the  cheap  beef  of  earlier  days. 

Prizes  have  been  given  in  various  portions  of 
our  own  country,  year  after  year,  for  improved 
breeds   of    cows.      At    most    agricultural   fairs   a 


98 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


medal  or  a  certificate  is  awarded  to  the  exhibitor 
of  the  cow  that  yields  the  largest  quantity  of 
milk  or  the  milk  richest  in  cream.  The  amount 
of  milk  drawn  from  a  prize  cow  is  usually  recorded 
every  day  for  an   entire  year,  together  with  the 


weight  of  the  butter  made  from  the  milk  in  that 
time.  And  each  cow,  if  of  pure  breed,  as  a  Jersey 
or  an  Alderney,  is  numbered,  in  order  to  trace 
her  record  more  easily.  The  United  States  can 
now  boast  of  several  cows  valued  at  over  twenty 
thousand  dollars  each. 

It    is    the    system    of    selecting    only   the   best 


PRIZES  FOR  IMPROVEMENT.  99 

animals  for  keeping,  that  has  given  us  our  present 
superior  grade  of  cattle.  Whenever  a  specially 
good  point  of  excellence  has  appeared  in  any 
beast,  the  animal  has  been  saved  from  slaughter. 
Thus  the   pedigree  cattle   have  been   developed. 

About  the  middle  of  this  century  the  longhorns 
held  the  place  which  the  shorthorns  now  hold  in 
the  estimation  of  farmers.  Thirty-two  picked 
cows  of  each  breed  were  once  tested  as  to  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  the  milk  given.  The 
shorthorns  yielded  538  pounds  of  milk  with  66y2 
pounds  of  curd,  while  the  milk  product  of  the 
longhorns  weighed  553  pounds,  having  69  pounds 
of  curd.  One  breed  excelled  in  the  quality  of  the 
milk  obtained,  the  other  breed  in  the  quantity. 
More  cream  could  be  got  from  one  breed,  more 
cheese  from  the  other. 

There  has  also  been  a  steady  improvement  in 
the  raising  of  cattle  destined  for  the  butcher. 
The  longhorns  mature  early,  and  give  the  greatest 
number  of  prime  cuts  from  the  back  and  ribs. 
This  breed  can  be  fattened  more  readily  than  any 
other  variety  of  cattle.  Oxen,  when  in  their  sixth 
year,  are  fittest  for  slaughtering,  but  the  desire 
for  a  quick  return  of  the  money  invested  causes 
a  large  number  of  them  to  be  killed  when  they 
have  barely  ceased  to  be  calves. 

While  the  quality  of   our  meat    has    been    im- 


IOO  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

proved,  owing  partly  to  the  stimulus  of  prizes,  it 
is  to  be  regretted  that  the  slaughter-houses  in 
many  cities  are  as  vile  as  the  shambles  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  clean,  rapid,  humane  methods 
of  killing,  employed  in  the  immense  abattoirs  of 
Chicago,  should  be  adopted  wherever  beef  is 
dressed  for  sale.  From  the  time  of  Moses,  the 
Hebrew  butcher  has  been  teaching  us  mercy  to 
the  dumb  beasts  slain  for  our  benefit  ;  yet  it  is 
only  lately  that  we  have  perceived  the  wisdom  and 
mercifulness  of  his  mode  of  slaughtering.  He 
does  not  kill  the  doomed  animal  with  the  brutal 
pole-axe,  but  divides,  with  his  keen  knife,  the 
large  arteries  of  the  neck,  and  the  creature's  life 
ebbs  painlessly  away  with  the  blood. 


Lesson  XXIX. 
Beef. 


Our  food  must  be  palatable  that  we  may  eat  it 
with  relish,  and  get  the  greatest  nourishment  from 
it.  The  flavoring  quality  of  food  —  its  taste,  in 
fact  —  stimulates  the  production  of  those  secre- 
tions, such  as  the  saliva  and  the  gastric  juice,  by 
the  action  of  which  the  food  is  dissolved  in 
digestion.     As  food,  then,  must  be  relished,  it  is 


BEEF. 


IOI- 


desirable  that  our  diet  should  be  varied  in  charac- 
ter. We  should  not  be  restricted  to  a  choice 
between  vegetables  and  meat. 

By  due  mixture  of  both  meats  and  vegetables, 
by  occasionally  varying  the'  kinds  of  each  class  of 
foods,  and  by  judicious  cooking,  the  necessav  r 
elements  of  our  daily  fare  are  furnished  not  only 
the  most  cheaply  but  also  in  the  proportion  to  do 
the  human  system  the  most  service.  Now,  if  we 
were  to  limit  our  diet  to  wheat  flour,  we  should 
be  obliged  to  eat 
nearly  four  and 
one-half  pounds 
of  white  bread  in 
order  to  get  our 
necessary  daily 
supply  of  flesh 
or  muscle-forming 
substances  —  the  nitrogenous  materials  which  we 
have  mentioned. 

But  this  amount  of  bread  would  give  twice  as 
much  starchy  matter  as  would  be  needed.  As  it 
could  not  be  used,  it  would  clog  the  system,  and 
in  a  short  time  this  mode  of  dieting  would  result 
in  serious  injury  to  the  health  of  the  person 
indulging  in  it.  Animal  food  is  generally  richer 
than  vegetable  in  the  nitrogenous  elements  ;  so, 
by  eating  lean  beef,  for  example,  with  the  bread, 


102-  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

we  shall  have  a  supply  of  both  the  needed  carbon, 
found  in  the  flour,  and  the  equally  necessary 
nitrogen,  provided  in  the  meat.  And  this  mixed 
fare  will  enable  us  to  do  a  great  deal  more  labor. 
Twelve  ounces  of  beef  may  be  used  instead  of 
thirty-three  ounces  of  the  bread,  and  yet  the  body 
be  a  gainer  thereby. 

What  are  the  sources  of  our  immense  supplies 
of  beef  ?  The  steak  on  your  plate  to-day  may 
have  come  from  some  ox  raised  near  your  home. 
Vast  droves  of  cattle  from  far  Western  plains  help 
to  cover  the  meat-hooks  in  the  markets  of  the  East. 
Steamer  loads  of  beeves,  selected  also  from  West- 
ern herds,  are  sent  every  day  to  the  swarming 
millions  of  Europe.  We  import  but  little  meat, 
salt  or  fresh,  the  boundless  prairies  of  our  own 
great  West  feeding  more  cattle  than  any  other 
country  on  the  globe  possesses. 

American  beeves  are  heavier  than  those  of 
any  other  nation,  except  perhaps  the  oxen  of 
France.  Some  idea  of  the  gigantic  industry  of 
beef-exporting  from  the  United  States  may  be 
obtained  from  consideration  of  the  fact  that  we 
send  to  Europe  nearly  seven  hundred  thousand 
tons  of  beef,  fresh  and  salt,  every  year.  Hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  dollars  are  invested  in  the 
cattle  business  ;  thousands  and  thousands  of  men 
earn  good  wages  in  it. 


THE   SOUL    OF   THE  FARM.  103 

How  many  departments  it  might  be  divided 
into  —  the  work  on  the  lonely  Western  ranches  ; 
the  transportation  to  the  abattoirs,  or  to  the  sea- 
ports ;  the  slaughtering  and  dressing  for  market ; 
the  distribution  of  the  meat  to  the  wholesale 
dealers  first,  next  to  the  butchers,  and,  lastly,  to 
the  consumers !  And  each  of  these  branches  of 
the  cattle  trade  might  be  divided  into  a  dozen 
subdivisions. 

Yet  the  rearing  of  cows  and  oxen  for  slaughter 
is  a  new  business  in  the  United  States.  It  was 
unknown  here  in  Colonial  days.  It  was  but  slight 
in  amount,  at  even  so  late  a  period  as  the  close  of 
the  Civil  War.  Railroads,  built  across  the  vast 
pasture  territories  beyond  the  Mississippi,  ren- 
dered it  possible  for  the  cattle-ranchman  of  Wyo- 
ming to  sell  his  beef  at  a  profit  in  New  York. 


Lesson  XXX. 
The  Soul  of  the  Farm. 


To  tame  a  wild  animal,  and  to  place  it  under 
favorable  conditions  of  food  and  shelter,  will 
improve  it  in  flesh  and  covering.  The  wild  sheep 
has  a  scanty  growth  of  loose,  straggling  hair  —  it 
could   not  be  called   wool.     The  long,  fine,  silky 


104  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

fleece  of  our  best  sheep  is  the  reward  of  years  and 
years  of  patient  selection  and  good  feeding. 

To-day  the  wealth  and  power  of  a  nation  depend 
largely  on  its  manufactures,  and  their  outgrowth, 
commerce.  Yet  the  manufacturer  relies  for  food 
on  the  farmer.  It  is  curious  to  notice,  however, 
that  countries  whose  main  source  of  wealth  is 
agriculture  are  often  swept  by  famine,  while  in 
manufacturing  nations  people  never  starve  by 
thousands,  as  is  too  often  the  case  in  lands  where 
farming  is  the  chief  occupation.  India  and  Ire- 
land are  melancholy  examples  of  farming  countries 
in  which  mills  and  factories  are  too  few. 

As  money  will  buy  food  anywhere,  the  inhabit- 
ants of  a  manufacturing  country  are  not  forced  to 
choose  between  starvation  and  the  products  of 
their  own  fields  only.  Or,  steamers,  loaded  with 
goods,  may  be  sent  to  every  port  on  the  globe 
from  which  provisions  are  shipped,  and  cargoes 
of  food  will  be  gladly  exchanged  for  the  manu- 
factured articles. 

England's  rise  in  wealth  and  commerce  began 
with  the  introduction  of  woollen  manufactures 
into  the  country.  The  cloth-makers  wanted  more 
wool.  To  supply  it,  the  farmers  had  to  raise  more 
sheep.  Then  the  quality  of  the  English  fleeces 
had  to  be  improved.  What  causes  the  difference 
in  the  amount  of  wear,  in  the  appearance,  cost  and 


THG  SOUL   OF   THE  FARM.  105 

fineness,  of  a  suit  of  clothes  made  of  good  cloth 
and  a  suit  cut  from  cheap  material  ?  Chiefly  the 
difference  in  the  length  of  the  fibres  of  the  wool. 
The  wool  of  the  English  sheep  was  short  and 
coarse.  Large  numbers  of  Spanish  sheep,  known 
as  Merinos,  were  brought  into  Great  Britain  in 
order  that  farmers  might  be  enabled  to  supply 
manufacturers  with  wool  of  a  higher  grade. 

The  farmers  soon  found  that  they  would  gain 
two  profits  from  the  money  spent  in  bettering 
their  flocks.  The  fleeces  could  be  sold  to  the 
wool  merchants,  the  carcasses  to  the  butchers. 
As  sheep  nibble  the  grass,  unlike  cattle,  they  can 
be  pastured  on  hills  and  meadows  where  cows 
would  starve.  Practically,  here  was  still  another 
profit  for  the  farmer.  Waste  land,  too  barren  to 
pay  for  ploughing  it,  too  scantily  covered  with 
grass  to  feed  his  cattle,  could  be  used  to  support 
large  numbers  of  the  very  animals  it  was  most 
profitable  for  him  to  raise.  Hence  arose  the 
proverb,  "  A  flock  of  sheep  is  the  soul  of  a  farm." 

Nowadays  the  vast,  grassy  plains  of  Australia, 
of  South  Africa,  and  of  the  Argentine  Republic, 
afford  pasturage  for  nothing  to  the  sheep-raiser, 
and  Europe's  supplies  of  mutton  and  wool  are 
drawn  largely  from  those  countries.  The  cities 
of  Brisbane,  Sydney,  and  Melbourne  send,  on  the 
average,  twelve  thousand  sheep  to  London  every 
week. 


106  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  XXXI. 
Iced  Meat. 

Many  persons  prefer  mutton  to  beef.  And 
there  are  very  few  of  us  who  do  not  consider 
a  lamb  chop  equal  to  even  sirloin  steak.  In  the 
South  of  Europe  the  mutton  is  better  than  in  the 
North,  and  replaces  beef  on  the  tables  of  the 
rich.  Mutton  is  the  sole  flesh  food  of  the  pastoral 
peoples  of  Asia  and  Africa,  but  in  Holland  and 
Germany  it  is,  strangely  enough,  regarded  as 
inferior  to  pork. 

In  every  hundred  pounds  of  lean  mutton,  seventy- 
five  pounds  will  be  water,  and  ten  or  eleven  will  be 
nitrogenous  matter,  the  food  of  the  brain,  nerves, 
and  muscles. 

When  sheep  began  to  increase  by  the  million  in 
Australia,  it  became  impossible  there  to  consume 
the  flesh  for  food.  Millions  of  pounds  of  the  fin- 
est mutton  were  destroyed  every  spring,  the  sheep 
being  slaughtered  and  boiled  down  simply  for 
their  tallow.  In  the  Argentine  Republic  the 
same  shocking  waste  of  valuable  food  was  com- 
mitted year  after  year.  Why  was  not  the  mutton 
carried  to  European  cities  and  sold  ?  Because  no 
means    of   transporting   it   to  market    across   the 


ICED   MEAT.  107 

ocean,  in  a  condition  fresh  enough  to  consume, 
had  then  been  devised. 

Men  knew  that  ice  will  preserve  meat,  but  how 
was  this  knowledge  to  be  utilized  ?  How  could 
money  be  made  by  carrying  meat  from  distant 
countries  to  Europe?  In  1779  some  Russian 
explorers  found  that  a  part  of  the  bank  on  the 
left  side  of  the  Lena  River  had  fallen  away  ;  and, 
on  examination,  they  discovered  a  specimen  of  the 
extinct  mammoth,  an  animal  larger  than  the  ele- 
phant, imbedded  in  a  mass  of  ice  which  underlay 
the  soil.  The  frozen  flesh  was  perfectly  sound, 
and  their  dogs  fed  on  it  greedily.  If  those  dogs 
could  have  known  that  they  were  eating  meat 
from  the  body  of  a  beast  that  had  been  dead 
a  hundred  thousand  years  ! 

The  toiling  millions  of  Europe  were  urgently 
demanding  cheap  meat ;  the  sheep-breeders  of 
various  countries  were  anxious  to  sell  their  mutton. 
A  way  was  soon  devised  to  bring  the  meat  to  the 
consumers.  Steamers  were  built  with  double 
sides,  filled  in  between  with  ice,  and  having 
arrangements  for  keeping  cold  air  constantly  cir- 
culating through  large  chambers  in  the  hold.  In 
these  the  dressed  mutton  is  stored,  and  is  deliv- 
ered fresh  in  London. 

Beef  can,  of  course,  be  safely  transported  in  like 
manner.     Till  lately,  millions  of  cattle  have  been 


108  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

slaughtered  in  Russia  merely  for  their  hides,  there 
being  no  sale  for  their  meat  in  that  empire.  Now, 
great  abattoirs  having  been  built  in  Libau,  refrig- 
erator steamers,  loaded  with  thousands  of  tons  of 
beef,  sail  from  that  city  weekly  to  the  great  sea- 
ports of  Western  Europe.  This  Russian  beef 
trade  is  more  profitable  than  Australia's  mutton- 
exporting  industry,  because  the  voyage  from  Libau 
to  London  can  be  made  in  a  much  shorter  time 
than  a  steamer  can  go  from  any  Australian  port 
to  England. 

Refrigerator  cars  are  run  on  nearly  all  our  rail- 
roads ;  and  in  summer  they  prove  very  valuable, 
bringing  the  meat  of  the  great  West  into  the 
markets  of  the  crowded  East.  Diseased  cattle  or 
hogs  and  unsound  meat  are  not  allowed  to  be 
exported.  The  European  buyer  of  American 
animal  food  is  protected  at  the  expense  of  the 
American  Government. 


OTHER   MODES   OF  PRESERVATION.        109 

Lesson  XXXII. 
Other  Modes  of  Preservation. 

Dead  meat  will  decay,  and,  later  on,  will  become 
putrid.  These  changes  are  due  to  oxygen  in  the 
water  which  (we  have  learned)  makes  up  the 
greater  part  of  all  meat.  Exclude  the  oxygen, 
and  the  meat  will  keep  sound.  Salting  is  the 
method  of  preserving  meat  most  familiar  to  us. 

Salt  absorbs  the  water,  and  forms  a  chemical 
compound  in  which  the  oxygen  is  inert.  By  this 
method  the  meat  is  rendered  less  digestible, 
however,  and  prolonged  use  of  salt  meat  will 
cause  scurvy.  This  disease  made  fearful  ravages 
among  our  hardest-working  bread-winners,  the  sail- 
ors, till  scientific  men  discovered  that  lime-juice 
would  counteract  the  evil  effects  of  a  salt-meat 
diet.  Now,  by  law,  every  master  of  a  vessel  is 
obliged  to  give  his  crew  a  certain  quantity  of  lime- 
juice  on  every  voyage. 

In  the  Torrid  Zone,  drying  the  meat  in  the  sun 
is  the  favorite  mode  of  curing  it.  The  bones  are 
removed  from  the  carcass,  the  remainder  is  cut 
into  strips,  and  hung  up  out-doors  to  dry.  In 
less  than  a  day  the  moisture  is  fully  evaporated, 
and  the  dried,   or    "jerked,"    meat    will   last    for 


110  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

months  without  traces  of  decay  appearing.  Meat 
is  sometimes  smoked  instead  of  sun-drying  it. 
Smoking  is  the  common  mode  of  preserving 
bacon. 

Ham  is  often  cured  by  using  sugar  instead  of 
salt.  Meat  dried  in  wood  smoke  has  the  advan- 
tage of  being  preserved,  to  some  extent,  from 
further  change,  even  should  such  meat  become 
moist.  This  gain  is  due  to  the  creosote,  or  car- 
bolic acid,  which  is  always  present  in  smoke  from 
wood.  Meat  dipped  in  a  watery  solution  of  car- 
bolic acid  will  dry  up  without  becoming  offensive 
in  odor  or  taste.  To  smoke  meat  affects  it  some- 
what similarly  to  cooking  it  —  the  nitrogenous 
matter  thickens,  as  the  white  of  an  egg  becomes 
denser  in  boiling.  Wood  is  often  soaked  in 
carbolic  acid  to  render  it  more  durable  in  wet 
places. 

As  the  smoke  slowly  penetrates  the  meat,  it 
sends  the  water  off  in  vapor,  thus  drying  the 
tissues.  It  also  imparts  to  the  meat  the  odor  of 
the  fuel  used.  The  flavor  of  Westphalia  hams  is 
due  to  the  juniper  twigs  burned  under  them. 
Corn-cobs  are  often  employed  in  the  United 
States   as   smoke   producers. 

Joints  to  be  preserved  have  been  coated  with 
various  substances,  such  as  paraffin,  collodion, 
mixtures  of  molasses  and  gelatine  and  of  gelatine 


A    FRENCHMAN'S  PLAN.  Ill 

and  glycerine.  Several  chemicals  that  absorb 
oxygen  have  been  tried  —  the  sulphites  of  lime, 
magnesia,  and  soda.  For  mercantile  reasons  these 
methods  have  failed  of  success. 


Lesson  XXXIII. 
A  Frenchman's  Plan. 


Oxygen  is  an  element  of  the  air  as  well  as  of 
the  water.  This  gas  is  present  in  plants,  in  ani- 
mals, in  rocks.  One-third  of  the  earth's  crust, 
thirty  miles  in  thickness,  is  composed  of  oxygen. 
It  is  the  great  natural  agent  of  decay.  Yet  every 
minute  of  our  lives  we  breathe  several  cubic  feet 
of  it.  Oxygen  is,  therefore,  a  source  of  life  as 
well  as  of  death.  But  as  any  dead  plant  or  ani- 
mal attacked  by  it  decomposes  or  becomes  putrid, 
the  gas  must  be  excluded  from  contact  with  any 
animal  or  vegetal  substance  which  is  to  be  pre- 
served for  any  length  of  time. 

Smoking,  salting,  drying,  and  freezing  are  the 
older  processes  for  keeping  meat  free  from  oxy- 
gen. They  were  found  inconvenient  for  com- 
mercial purposes.  Dealers  wanted  some  mode  of 
preservation  that  would  permit  safe  and  rapid 
handling  of  the  meat.     Need  stimulates  invention. 


112  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

A  clever  Frenchman,  Appert,  suggested  that  the 
meat  be  boiled  in  cans  till  the  water  in  it  was 
driven  off  in  vapor  through  a  small  opening  in  the 
top  of  each  can.  This  opening  being  then  quickly 
soldered  over,  the  air  would  be  permanently  ex- 
cluded. The  plan  met  with  instant  favor,  and  has 
benefited  trade  incalculably. 

The  art  of  preserving  flesh-food  by  canning  has 
saved  millions  of  tons  of  meats  from  being  wasted  ; 
it  has  promoted  various  industries  ;  it  has  kept 
down  the  price  of  butchers  meat  in  every  village 
and  city  in  the  land,  and  has  brought  a  nourishing 
food  within  the  reach  of  the  poor,  to  an  extent  of 
which  they  themselves  are  unconscious. 

Before  being  placed  in  the  tins,  the  meat  is,  of 
course,  freed  from  bone.  Experience  has  taught 
the  canners  that  a  solution  of  chloride  of  calcium 
is  superior  to  pure  water  for  boiling  the  meat  in 
the  cans,  because  this  chemical  preparation  is  capa- 
ble of  being  heated  several  degrees  above  the 
boiling  point  of  water.  The  air  and  moisture  are 
not  supposed  to  be  fully  driven  out  of  the  meat 
until,  after  several  minutes  of  boiling,  there  is  a 
sudden  outrush  of  steam. 

When  the  expulsion  of  air  is  judged  to  be  com- 
plete, the  cans  are  quickly  soldered  up,  and  the 
contents  will  keep  sound  a  great  length  of  time. 
The  canned   meat  often  receives  an  addition   of 


A   FRENCHMAN'S  PLAN.  113 

some  gravy  or  a  little  spice  or  salt.  This  canning 
process  is  now  used  to  preserve  those  edible  vege- 
tal products  also  which,  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, would  be  likely  to  decay. 

Canned  meats  and  vegetables  are  moderate  in 
price,  and  generally  are  wholesome.  If,  however, 
the  contents  have  not  been  so  thoroughly  boiled 
as  to  have  expelled  all  the  oxygen,  decay  or  pu- 
trefaction will  result.  Those  changes  may  be 
detected  by  pressing  with  the  fingers  on  the  bot- 
tom of  the  can.  Should  a  crackling  of  the  tin  be 
heard,  it  is  an  indication  that  gases  have  already 
formed  inside,  and  the  can  should  be  rejected 
without  hesitation.  To  eat  decayed  food  is  to 
invite  death. 

Oftentimes  dishonest  dealers,  having  on  hand 
a  stock  of  decomposed  canned-goods,  will  attempt 
to  defraud  customers  by  punching  a  hole  in  each 
can  (to  let  the  gas  escape),  soldering  over  the 
hole,  and  concealing  it  with  a  label.  In  the  fac- 
tory only  one  aperture  is  made  in  each  can.  A 
can,  having  two  soldered  vent-holes,  should  be 
forwarded  to  the  nearest  Board  of  Health.  The 
substance  in  any  such  can  is  poisonous. 


114  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson    XXXIV. 
White  Treasures. 

The  most  useful  conquest  that  man  has  made  in 
the  class  of  birds  is  the  domestication  of  the  com- 
mon fowl.  In  all  civilized  nations,  the  meat  and 
eggs  of  this  feathered  tribe  are  valued  highly  as 
food  ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  races  of 
birds,  most  used  as  meat  food,  also  lay  the  great- 
est number  of  eggs.  All  eggs  are  edible.  The 
negroes  of  Guiana  consider  even  the  eggs  of  that 
huge  snake,  the  boa-constrictor,  to  be  quite  dainty 
articles  of  food.  In  Senegambia  the  natives  are 
very  fond  of  alligators'  eggs.  These,  singularly 
enough,  are  yolkless. 

It  is  only,  however,  in  the  eggs  of  the  hen  that 
there  is  an  extensive  trade.  The  eggs  of  the 
goose,  duck,  and  turkey  are  generally  consumed 
locally,  or  else  are  employed  for  setting.  Probably 
most  persons  do  not  fully  comprehend  how  much 
nourishment  there  is  in  an  egg  when  it  is  properly 
cooked.  Like  milk,  the  egg  contains  everything 
necessary  for  the  development  of  a  perfect  animal, 
as  is  plain  from  the  fact  that  a  chick  is  formed 
from  an  egg.  It  is  a  mystery  how  muscles,  bones, 
feathers,    and   all   the    materials   that   a   chicken 


WHITE    TREASURES.  115 

needs  for  its  development,  are  found  in  the  yolk 
and  white  of  an  egg.  The  egg,  then,  is  a  com- 
plete food.  Eggs,  raw  or  soft-boiled,  are  easily 
digested,  and  are  more  nutritive  than  twice  their 
weight  of  the  best  beefsteak. 

The  number  of  eggs  consumed  yearly  in  this 
country  is  so  large  as  almost  to  exceed  belief. 
The  egg  traffic  in  New  York  City  alone  amounts 
to  over  $9,000,000  annually.  In  Cincinnati,  Chi- 
cago, Indianapolis,  St.  Louis,  and  other  cities,  the 
egg  business  is  as  great  proportionally.  The  total 
value  of  the  eggs  sold  every  year  in  the  United 
States  has  been  estimated  at  $70,000,000,  the 
home  produce  being  the  enormous  number  of 
9,000,000,000  eggs.  Yet  we  import  over  15,000,- 
000  dozen  yearly  ! 

The  perishable  nature  of  eggs  has  restricted  the 
trade  in  them  somewhat.  Even  the  ingenious 
method  of  packing  them  in  mill-board  partitions, 
an  egg  in  each  square  cell,  has  not  proved  wholly 
satisfactory.  It  occurred  to  a  young  clerk,  in 
a  provision  store  in  St.  Louis,  that  eggs,  as  well  as 
milk,  might  be  condensed.  He  patented  the  pro- 
cess now  known  as  drying  or  desiccating  eggs. 

The  egg  is  converted  into  a  glassy-looking  sub- 
stance, amber-tinted,  reduced  to  one-eighth  of  its 
original  bulk ;  and  yet  it  retains  its  nutritive  prop- 
erties for  years.     This   process   is   a   remarkable 


Il6  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

illustration  of  the  power  of  science.  It  will  have 
an  important  bearing  on  the  question  of  cheaper 
food  by  preventing  waste  and  making  the  price  of 
eggs  nearly  equal  throughout  the  year. 

In  the  dried  form,  eggs  may  be  transported, 
without  injury,  to  any  part  of  the  earth,  and  can, 
at  any  time,  be  restored  to  their  original  condition, 
simply  by  adding  the  water  which  has  been  arti- 
ficially taken  away.  The  principal  egg-desiccating 
companies  are  located  in  New  York  and  St.  Louis. 
No  salt  or  other  foreign  matter  is  used  in  the  pro- 
cess of  desiccation,  the  product  being  simply  a 
mixture  (condensed)  of  the  yolk  and  albumen. 


Lesson  XXXV. 
Feathered  Cheer. 


All  the  world  knows  the  excellence  of  the 
flesh  of  domestic  poultry.  No  feast  is  complete 
without  fowl.  One  noticeable  point  in  the  com- 
position of  lean  poultry  meat  is  the  absence  of 
fat.  The  leanest  beef  or  mutton  that  you  have 
ever  eaten  contained  eight  or  ten  per  cent  of  fat 
in  its  tissues.  When  much  fat  is  present  in  the 
flesh  of  fowl,  the  meat  is  less  delicate  in  flavor 
and  less  digestible. 


FEATHERED   CHEER.  117 

In  ancient  Rome  the  art  of  fattening  hens,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  imparting  a  peculiar  flavor  to 
their  flesh,  was  brought  to  a  high  degree  of  per- 
fection. The  demand  for  fat  hens  grew  so  great 
that  at  length  the  Consul  Fannius  issued  a  decree, 
forbidding  the  fattening  process,  as  he  feared  that 
not  a  living  hen  would  be  left  in  Italy. 

In  still  earlier  times,  the  Egyptians  knew  how 
to  hatch  out  chickens  in  ovens.  This  secret 
method  of  artificial  hatching  was  lost,  and  re- 
mained unknown  till  it  was  discovered  again  in 
the  last  century.  It  is  practised  at  the  present 
day  with  the  most  satisfactory  results.  A  steam- 
heated  apparatus,  called  an  incubator,  will  hatch 
out  12,000  chickens  at  a  time,  and  will  hatch  them 
out  more  rapidly  and  safely  than  would  be  possible 
in  the  natural  way. 

Poultry  vary  in  size  as  widely  as  any  other  ani- 
mals. The  average  weight  of  barnyard  fowls  is 
y/2  pounds  each,  in  the  United  States;  in 
Morocco,  14  pounds.  The  varieties  regarded  as 
best  for  the  poulterer  are  the  Surrey,  Dorking, 
and  Houdan.  These  should  be  more  generally 
known  here.  American  pork  is  the  finest  in  the 
world,  but  American  poultry  is  the  worst.  Our 
fowls  are  neither  carefully  bred  nor  reared.  East- 
ern butchers  describe  Texan  steers  as  all  legs  and 
horns.     European  cooks  say  that  American  chick- 


118  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

ens  are  all  legs  and  elbows,  covered  with  ugly 
yellow  skin.  Nevertheless,  having  no  better  fowls 
at  hand,  we  consume  every  year  more  than 
55,000,000  of  these  despised  bipeds. 

It  is  pleasant  to  learn,  though,  that  roast  Ameri- 
can turkey  is  highly  praised  by  foreign  epicures, 
their  opinion  agreeing  with  ours  as  to  the  palatable 
qualities  of  our  only  native  fowl.  The  breast  of 
the  wild  turkey,  fried  in  the  oil  of  the  black  bear, 
is  said  to  be  the  most  delicious  of  all  meats. 

In  China,  the  number  of  ducks  used  for  food  is 
so  great  that  it  has  been  found  necessary  from 
time  immemorial  to  hatch  the  young  by  artificial 
heat.  The  tame  duck  is  not  so  much  esteemed  as 
a  table  fowl  here  as  in  other  countries ;  but  the 
famous  canvas-back  duck,  shot  on  the  shores  of 
Chesapeake  Bay,  is  held  in  the  highest  regard. 
In  France  and  in  England  great  attention  is  paid 
to  the  rearing  of  ducks  for  the  market. 

The  great  antiquity  of  the  goose,  as  a  food-bird, 
may  be  partly  guessed  when  we  learn  that  it  is 
represented  on  an  ancient  Egyptian  monument  as 
undergoing  preparation  for  roasting  at  the  hands 
of  the  king's  chief  cook.  France  raises  more 
geese  than  any  other  country.  Strasburg  is  noted 
for  its  curious  meat -pies,  made  out  of  geese-livers 
enlarged  by  a  special  mode  of  feeding. 

The  geese  are  put  into  small,  dark  cells,  to  pre- 


FEATHERED    CHEER.  1 1 9 

vent  the  birds  from  moving.  These  are  fed  to 
repletion  with  nourishing  paste,  and  their  only 
drink  is  water  in  which  sulphur  has  been  dissolved. 
When  the  fattening  process  is  completed,  the 
birds  are  killed  and  the  livers  taken  out. 

A  liver  weighs  from  two  and  one-half  to  four 
pounds  —  often  more  than  the  bird's  carcass 
weighs.  The  body  is  usually  shrivelled  out  of 
shape.  Each  liver,  having  been  larded  with  truf- 
fles for  a  week,  is  placed  in  an  earthen  dish,  and 
baked  for  about  five  hours.  Cooked  livers  are 
sent  in  tin  boxes  all  over  the  world. 

Passenger  pigeons  furnish  American  tables  with 
an  immense  quantity  of  wild  meat,  cheap,  nutri- 
tious, and  well-flavored.  In  one  day,  seven  tons 
of  these  birds  have  been  brought  into  the  markets 
of  New  York.  Pigeons  have  been  seen  in  flocks, 
computed  by  such  skilled  observers  as  the  great 
ornithologists,  Wilson  and  Audubon,  to  contain 
thousands  of  millions  of  birds. 


120  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  XXXVI. 
The  Harvest  of  the  Sea. 

There  is  a  great  difference  in  the  cost  of  animal 
food  raised  on  the  land,  and  animal  food  obtained 
from  the  sea.  Poultry  and  live-stock  derive  their 
sustenance  from  the  produce  of  the  earth,  but  fish 
of  all  kinds  feed  themselves  at  no  expense  to  man. 
The  fisheries  have  another  advantage  over  agri- 
culture —  nature  alone  is  charged  with  sowing  the 
field  which  the  fisherman  reaps. 

The  products  of  the  ocean,  as  well  as  the  land 
crops,  enter  largely  into  the  food  resources  of  man- 
kind. The  fisheries  supply  our  home  markets,  and 
also  furnish  to  trade  merchandise  for  export. 

When  treating  of  working  the  soil  for  food,  we 
spoke  of  large  and  small  farms.  In  fishing,  the 
small  farms  are  the  coast  fisheries,  or  the  fisheries 
of  the  lakes ;  the  large  farms  find  their  parallels 
in  vast  expanses  of  the  sea,  well  known  as  the 
feeding-grounds  of  fish.  In  one  occupation,  the 
composition  of  the  earth  and  the  needs  of 
the  plants  have  to  be  studied  ;  in  the  other,  the 
depths  of  the  waters  and  the  instincts  of  the  finny 
tribes. 

We  are  beginning  to  appreciate  more  justly  this 


THE  HARVEST  OF   THE   SEA.  121 

grand  industry  of  the  deep.  Hitherto  we  have 
neglected  a  food  supply  sufficient  for  the  support 
of  millions  of  human  lives.  Numerous  species  of 
food-fishes,  palatable  and  nutritious,  have  been 
left  untouched.  In  the  United  States  thousands 
of  tons  of  fish  are  used  every  year  for  fertilizing 
farm  lands.  The  seas,  lakes,  and  rivers  teem  with 
animal  life  suitable  for  human  food. 

It  is  evident  that  a  more  abundant  supply  of 
fish  would  lower  the  price  of  butcher's  meat. 
A  revival  of  a  healthful  habit  of  America's  early 
settlers  —  that  of  living  largely  on  sea  products  — 
would  solve  the  puzzling  problem  of  procuring 
cheap  flesh  food  for  the  toiling  millions  hived  in  all 
our  great  cities. 

The  fishing  resources  of  our  own  vast  extent  of 
coast  are  very  great,  but,  as  yet,  they  are  only 
very  little  developed.  Many  varieties  of  fish, 
highly  valued  in  Europe,  are  never  used  here.  Of 
the  1,563  finny  species  found  in  the  waters  of  the 
United  States,  only  150  are  offered  for  sale  in  our 
markets. 

Every  year  the  wholesale  fish-dealers  of  New 
York  receive  about  30,000,000  pounds  of  fish  of 
different  kinds.  Yet  two-thirds  of  this  weight  is 
made  up  of  six  varieties  only — cod,  bluefish,  hali- 
but, haddock,  porgics,  and  flounders. 

Some  years  ago  the  fish-culturists  treated  them- 


122  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

selves  to  a  dinner  of  sea  delicacies  hardly  known 
here  even  by  name.  The  bill  of  fare  comprised 
fifty-eight  distinct  species  of  fish,  nearly  all  being 
strangers  to  American  palates.  Japanese  sea- 
weed, Chinese  dried  fish-maws,  and  desiccated 
octopus  (devil-fish)  eggs  were  among  the  items  in 
the  list  of  edibles. 

The  Fish  Commission  of  the  United  States  is 
doing  a  great  work  in  its  examination  of  the  worth 
of  various  fishes  as  food,  and  in  its  efforts  to  intro- 
duce favorite  European  fish  into  the  waters  of  this 
country.  By  means  of  the  Commission's  hatcheries 
millions  of  young  fry  are  produced  every  month 
from  the  ova,  or  eggs. 

Placed  in  waters  suitable  for  their  development, 
the  young  fish  soon  grow  large  enough  to  serve  as 
food.  Thus  our  mountain  streams  may  soon  be 
stocked  with  brook  trout ;  our  rivers  with  salmon, 
with  carp  from  Germany,  mullet  from  Jamaica, 
gourami  from  India,  and  with  dozens  of  other 
fishes,  equally  nutritious  and  palatable. 


TRAWLING.  123 

Lesson  XXXVII. 
Trawling. 

There  are  home  fisheries  and  distant  ones ; 
fishing-banks  netted  all  the  year  round,  and  others 
swept  only  at  certain  seasons.  The  chief  distant 
fishing-grounds  are  the  shallows,  or  "  banks,"  off 
the  coast  of  Newfoundland. 

These  banks  abound  with  cod.  This  variety  of 
fish  has  been  caught  by  the  hundred  million,  year 
after  year,  for  three  centuries,  mainly  on  the 
Newfoundland  banks,  and  yet  to-day  the  cod  is  one 
of  the  most  plentiful  of  all  the  food-fishes. 

Codfish  are  taken  also  off  the  Norwegian  coast, 
near  the  rocky  group  of  islets  called  the  Loffoden 
Islands.  Fishermen  from  all  parts  of  maritime 
Europe  resort  there.  The  shore-waters  of  Iceland 
and  the  North  Sea  are  other  noted  fishing-stations 
where  cod  are  found  in  large  numbers. 

The  North  Sea,  or  German  Ocean,  is  the  most 
active  scene  of  British  fishing.  The  bed  of  the 
sea  was  once  dry  land,  and  Great  Britain  then 
was  a  part  of  the  Continent  of  Europe.  A  wide- 
spread shoal,  the  Great  Dogger  Bank,  runs  north 
and  south  for  over  300  miles,  and  is  a  rich  feeding- 
ground  for  myriads  of  fish. 


124 


FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 


In  summer  time  one  may  see  from  2,000  to 
3,000  fishing  smacks  sailing  over  this  bank. 
Steamers  take  the  fresh  fish  from  the  small 
vessels  to  the  nearest  convenient  port  in  England, 


whence  the  fish  are  sent  by  railroad  to  the  large 
cities  in  the  interior. 

The  fish  are  conveyed  in  boats  from  the  little 
vessels  to  the  steamers.  This  work  is  dangerous 
in  foul  weather.  The  boatmen  take  their  lives  in 
their  hands,  and  fatal  accidents  often  happen. 


TRAWLING.  125 

The  fish  keep  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  where 
their  food  is  to  be  found.  They  are  caught  in 
trawl-nets  which  "  trawl,"  or  trail,  on  the  shoal,  or 
sandbank,  as  the  vessels  sail  along.  A  long 
heavy  bar  and  a  ground-rope  start  the  fish  into 
the  net,  a  triangle-shaped,  bag-like  trap,  woven  of 
cotton  twine.  Stalwart  sailors  haul  up  the  net, 
the  fish  falling  down  into  its  pointed  end. 

A  net-full  of  fish  in  one  great  heap  on  the  deck 
—  hundreds  of  leaping  fish,  their  silvery  scales 
gleaming  in  the  sun,  ugly  dog-fishes  floundering 
here  and  there,  and  huge  crabs  scurrying  in  all 
directions  —  how  interesting  such  a  sight  would 
be  to  the  pupils  of  this  school ! 

A  cast  of  a  net  on  the  Dogger  Bank  would 
probably  capture  many  food-fish  whose  appearance 
in  an  American  market  would  arouse  curiosity. 
Soles,  plaices,  brills,  dorys,  ling,  and  whiting  are 
not  familiar  names  to  us.  Nor  should  we  recognize 
the  refuse  of  the  take  either,  the  scidch,  English 
fishermen  term  it.  Many  classes  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  sea  are  unfit  for  man's  use.  If  caught, 
they  are  thrown  back  into  the  water.  Queer 
names  are  those  bestowed  on  the  unwelcome  fel- 
low-citizens of  the  food-fishes  —  stingrays,  cats, 
dogs,  toads,  scruff,  candy,  and  hags  ! 

Pilchard  fishing  is  an  important  industry  on  the 
south-west  coast  of    England.     The  pilchard   be- 


126  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

longs  to  the  herring  tribe,  and  is  a  fish  almost 
unknown  here  ;  yet  thousands  of  persons  would 
be  brought  to  the  verge  of  starvation,  if  no  school 
of  this  fish  visited  the  shores  of  the  island  of 
Great  Britain   this    year. 

Each  district  has  its  huer,  stationed  on  a  high 
cliff,  from  which  he  scans  the  water  for  signs  of 
the  presence  of  a  "school."  His  experienced  eye 
detects  the  pilchards  while  yet  they  are  miles 
away,  and  his  warning  call,  the  hue-and-cry,  arouses 
the  idlers  in  every  fisherman's  cottage. 

If  the  fish  are  close  in-shore,  boats,  describing 
a  half-circle  in  the  water,  throw  seines  around  the 
school.  The  seines  are  then  hauled  in,  and  the 
catch  is  spread  on  the  beach.  When  the  pilchards 
run  too  far  out  at  sea  for  the  seines  to  be  used, 
drift-nets,  worked  from  fishing-vessels,  are  em- 
ployed. Some  years  ago  the  largest  school  of 
pilchards  ever  seen  visited  the  coast  near  the  port 
of  St.  Ives,  and  in  one  day  the  fishermen  of  that 
small  town  netted  three  hundred  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  the  fish. 


SOME   FISH  SPORTS.  1 27 

Lesson.  XXXVIII. 
Some  Fish  Sports. 

Florists  and  fruit-growers  tell  us  that  it  is  not 
uncommon  for  plants  to  send  out  "sports."  These 
sports  are  unexpected  variations  in  flowers  or 
fruits.  If  a  sport  is  deemed  worth  propagating, 
its  growth  is  fostered,  its  seeds  are  planted,  and 
a  new  variety  is  thus  added  to  the  vegetable  king- 
dom. An  apple  on  a  tree  in  Ribstone  Park, 
Yorkshire,  England,  was  found  to  have  a  flavor 
different  from  that  of  the  other  apples  on  the  tree. 
This  sport  was  the  origin  of  all  the  pippins  in  the 
world. 

Variations  occur  in  the  animal  kingdom  also. 
A  farmer,  living  near  Watertown,  Massachusetts, 
noticed  that  one  of  his  young  lambs  had  very 
short  legs.  Even  when  full-grown,  the  animal, 
though  strong  and  well-bodied,  could  not  jump 
a  fence  that  ordinary  sheep  could  clear  easily. 
The  sheep's  inability  to  break  bounds  was  an 
advantage,  and  the  farmer  took  good  care  that 
this  woolly  sport  of  nature  should  not  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  butcher.  Her  lambs  brought 
high  prices  for  a  few  years,  other  sheep-raisers 
being    anxious    to    have    no   troublesome   fence- 


128  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

jumpers.  Now  there  are  several  varieties  of  sheep 
with  short  legs,  all  sprung  from  the  famous  Water- 
town  animal. 

In  fish-life,  Nature  determines  whether  or  not 
a  sport  shall  be  the  original  of  a  new  species. 
Suppose  a  slow-moving  fish,  shaped  like  the  cod 
or  the  salmon,  was  forced,  by  some  unusual  defect 
in  its  structure,  to  swim  and  to  lie  on  one  side. 
This  fish,  having  adapted  itself  to  the  variation 
from  the  ordinary  position,  would  be  in  no  wise 
disadvantaged  by  becoming  lop-sided.  As  the 
fish  increased  in  weight,  it  would  gradually  flatten 
in  shape.  We  can  watch  this  latter  change  in  the 
fry  hatched  from  the  eggs  of  the  flat  fishes. 

The  sole,  for  example,  begins  life  as  a  round 
fish.  After  a  time  it  adopts  the  lop-sided  position 
for  both  resting  and  swimming.  Then  a  curious 
illustration  of  nature's  saving  power  may  be  seen. 
The  under  eye,  being  useless  in  its  position, 
slowly  moves  round  to  the  top  !  The  upper  sur- 
face of  the  body  grows  darker  from  the  action  of 
the  light  on  it,  the  under  side  retains  its  white 
color. 

Sometimes  a  flat  fish  cannot  lie  on  either  side, 
and  then  both  sides  are  dark.  The  shade  of  the 
fish  is  the  same  as  the  color  of  the  feeding-ground. 
If  the  sand  is  all  of  one  color,  there  are  no  spots 
on  the  fishes.     If  there  are  pebbles  strewn  over 


SOME  FISH  SPORTS. 


129 


the  shoal,  spots,   similar   in   color   to    them,    will 
appear  on  the  upper  sides  of  the  fish. 

Does  the  sole  gain  anything  by  its  singular 
changes  ?  Yes,  these  are  really  so  many  modes 
of  protection  against  enemies.  The  ocean  is  the 
scene   of    never-ending   warfare.      All    the   large 


32fc 


members  of  the  finny  tribe  prey  on  the  smaller 
ones.  Fish  have  been  caught  that  had  swallowed 
other  fish,  and  still  others  were  found  inside  the 
latter.  The  saving  power  of  form  and  color,  com- 
bined, is  well  shown  in  the  flounder.  The  dark 
shade  and  flat  shape  of  this  fish  enable  it  to 
escape  the  eyes  of  larger  hungry  fishes  swimming 
above  it. 


130 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


Lesson  XXXIX. 

Money  from  Water. 

The  riches  of  the  ocean  are  too  great  for  com- 
putation. If  the  food-product  of  a  given  acreage 
of  land  should  be  compared  with  the  food-product 


j^t^L' *  JTH "    '■"  -  —  -* — * """^""^N, 

***** 

IH^j^HKill 

i^^LJL^gBi| 

: 

WSSk^ssr-  -  — 

- 

SALMON  A  DAY  OLD      • "  "";                     : '     • ' '  •,.  ■■■-■-;  \-£.di  -     !;: .:• ::  "     SALMONS  EGC._ 

of  an  equal  space  of  sea,  the  result  would  astonish 
most  persons.  The  best  fishing-grounds  can  pro- 
vide us  with  much  more  food  than  the  best  lands, 
like  areas  of  each  being  tested. 

An  acre  of  the  Grand  Bank  off  the  Newfound- 


MONEY  FROM   WATER.  13  I 

land  coast  will  yield  more  nutritious  edible  sub- 
stance in  one  week  than  an  acre  of  the  richest  soil 
will  produce  in  a  year. 

Fifty  acres  of  land  might  yield  2,000  bushels  of 
wheat  annually.  Five  schooners,  after  only  one 
night's  fishing,  brought  into  Gloucester,  Massa- 
chusetts, twenty-one  tons  of  fish.  The  nets,  it 
was  afterwards  proved,  had  swept  about  fifty  acres 
of  water. 

Nature  makes  us  a  free  gift  of  her  ocean  treas- 
ures. Fruits  and  grains  have  reached  their  pres- 
ent degree  of  excellence  solely  through  careful 
and  expensive  culture,  bestowed  on  them  by  man 
for  centuries.  Our  seas  and  lakes  and  rivers 
afford  us  vast  stores  of  food  of  a  quality  beyond 
our  power  to  improve. 

The  finest  of  food-fishes  is  the  salmon.  It 
leaves  the  ocean  waters  at  certain  seasons,  and 
ascends  to  the  upper  courses  of  rivers  to  spawn. 
Its  eggs  will  hatch  out  in  fresh  water  only ;  and, 
to  place  them  beyond  probable  danger,  the  fish 
will  swim  against  a  strong  current  for  a  thousand 
miles,  and  leap  up  over  falls  five  feet  in  height. 
After  spawning,  salmon  are  unfit  for  food,  and  are 
in  such  poor  condition  that  numbers  of  them  die 
on  their  way  back  to  the  sea. 

Salmon-spearing  by  torchlight  is  an  exciting 
amusement.     The  fish,  drawn  by  curiosity  towards 


132  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

the  blaze,  are  suddenly  transfixed  by  a  fishing- 
spear  (an  instrument  resembling  a  gigantic  fork) 
thrown  by  the  spearer.  He  usually  stands  in  the 
bow  of  the  boat.  The  Indians,  having  no  spears, 
used  bows  and  arrows. 

The  salmon  catch  of  the  United  States  exceeds 
that  of  any  other  country.  The  smaller  streams, 
flowing  into  the  Pacific  on  our  northwest  coast, 
are  at  spawning  time  almost  blocked  with  shoals 
of  salmon.  60,000,000  pounds  of  this  fish  are 
exported  annually  to  various  parts  of  the  world. 
The  process  of  preserving  meat  by  canning  makes 
it  possible  to  place  fresh  salmon  from  the  Colum- 
bia River  on  a  breakfast  table  in  any  portion  of 
the  earth. 

The  business  of  salmon-packing  has  now  grown 
to  be  the  largest  industry,  except  wheat -raising,  in 
our  great  Northwest.  On  the  Columbia  River, 
between  the  Cascades  and  Cape  Disappointment, 
there  are  forty-five  canning  establishments  and 
more  than  twenty  fishing  stations.  Most  of  the 
in-door  work  is  done  by  Chinamen. 

The  king  salmon,  the  largest  and  finest  in  the 
world,  is  caught  in  Alaskan  waters.  The  more 
northern  the  stream  in  which  the  fish  are  taken, 
the  better  is  their  flavor.  When  Russia  owned 
the  territory  of  Alaska,  the  territorial  officials 
esteemed  the  Yukon  salmon  so  highly  that  several 


AN  AMERICAN  FAVORITE.  1 33 

hogsheads  of  this  fish  were  salted  yearly,  and  sent 
by  the  Alaskan  governor  as  a  present  to  the 
Czar.  The  king  salmon  often  attains  a  weight  of 
ioo  pounds  —  a  weight  making  it  the  king  of  its 
species  indeed. 


Lesson  XL. 
An  American  Favorite. 


The  ancient  Jewish  law  forbids  the  eating  of 
those  creatures  that  have  neither  fin  nor  scale, 
declaring  them  to  be  "unclean."  A  fierce  con- 
troversy once  arose  among  learned  men  on  the 
question  whether  or  not  this  prohibition  extended 
to  oysters.  It  was  settled  by  the  triumphant 
question :  "  What  are  the  oyster's  shells,  but  its 
scales  ? "  As  the  side  questioned  could  not 
answer  this  query  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  the 
oyster,  the  one  most  interested  in  the  debate,  has 
ever  since  had  the  privilege  of  being  eaten  with 
lemon-juice  and  without  argument. 

There  could  never  have  arisen  any  doubt,  as  to 
whether  oysters  are  healthful  food,  had  the  Ameri- 
can species  been  known  in  Palestine.  All  gour- 
mands consider  our  oysters  the  choicest  to  be 
obtained  anywhere. 


134 


FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 


The  oyster  is  the  only  animal  substance  which 
we  eat  habitually  and  by  choice  in  the  raw  state. 
It  is  interesting  to  know  that  there  is  a  hygienic 
reason  for  this  preference.  The  large  dark  mass, 
which  makes  up  the  best  part  of  the  bivalve,  is  its 


liver.  This  contains  two  materials  that  are  mixed 
together  by  simply  eating  the  oyster.  These 
materials  then  digest  the  liver  without  any  help 
from  the  action  of  the  stomach.  But  this  advan- 
tage is  lost,  if  the  oyster  is  cooked.  It  must  in 
that  case  be  digested,  like  any  other  food,  by  the 
eater's  own  digestive  powers. 

The  production   of    oysters   is   steadily  on  the 


AN  AMERICAN  FAVORITE.  1 35 

increase.  New  oyster  farms,  planted  with  the 
most  desirable  seed-oysters,  are  being  constantly 
laid  out  along  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  seaboards 
of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Texas  abound  in 
oysters.  In  some  places  they  are  built  up  into 
reefs  twenty  miles  in  length. 

The  waters  of  the  Pacific  coast  do  not  seem  to 
contain  the  food  needed  for  the  successful  cultiva- 
tion of  this  favorite  mollusk.  California  oysters  are 
small  and  of  coppery  taste,  like  those  on  Palestine's 
seaboard  and  other  Mediterranean  beaches.  The 
bays  indenting  the  shores  of  Washington  furnish 
oysters  of  a  little  better  quality.  Portland,  Oregon, 
exports  about  60,000  barrels  of  oysters  a  year. 

The  Chinese  boil  their  oysters,  and  then  dry 
them  in  the  sun.  A  green  variety  of  the  bivalve 
is  much  prized  in  France,  and  the  artificial  green- 
ing of  oysters  is  carried  on  extensively  along  the 
banks  of  the  Seudre  River.  The  peculiar  color 
and  flavor  are  believed  by  the  French  to  be  im- 
parted by  certain  minute  plants,  which  grow  in 
the  beds  where  the  oysters  are  planted.  Salted 
oysters  are  eaten  in  Mexico. 

The  Connecticut  Indian  tribes  depended  much 
on  the  Long  Island  Sound  oyster-beds  for  food. 
The  white  settlers*  imitated  the  Indians  in  this 
particular.  There  are  several  tracts  of  the  Sound 
shore,  miles  in  length  each,  which  are  covered  four 


136  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

or  five  feet  deep  with  shells,  left  by  many  genera- 
tions of  oyster  epicures. 

A  large  trade  is  done  in  opened  oysters.  The 
cities  of  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  New 
Haven,  and  Providence  send  tubs  of  oyster-meats 
to  various  points  in  the  interior.  Cultivation  has 
largely  increased  the  supply  of  fine  oysters.  In 
New  Haven  twenty  years  -ago  it, was  difficult  to 
secure  ten  bushels  at  short  notice.  Now  a  thou- 
sand bushels  can  be  obtained  in  a  few  hours.  One 
reason  for  the  fine  flavor  of  the  Long  Island  Sound 
oysters  is  the  nearness  of  their  beds  to  fresh  water, 
numerous  rivers  flowing  into  the  Sound. 

Oyster  dredging  is  a  laborious  occupation.  The 
dredge  is  made  of  iron  rings,  and  is  shaped  some- 
what like  a  trawl.  The  beds,  or  farms,  in  shallow 
water,  are  fished  with  a  hand  tool  fashioned  like  a 
scoop. 

American  oysters  are  sought  after  in  the  most 
distant  markets,  and  are  sent  in  immense  quantities 
to  all  parts  of  our  own  continent,  to  Europe,  and 
to  portions  of  Asia.  Staten  Island  oysters  form 
one  of  Constantinople's  staple  imports.  Stringent 
laws  regulate  the  oyster  industry  in  all  the  North 
Atlantic  States.  No  oysters  may  be  taken  from 
the  water  during  spawning  time,  the  summer 
months.  The  yearly  product  of  the  American 
oyster  business  is  valued  at  $25,000,000. 


FINNY  MILLIONNAIRES.  1 37 

Lesson  XLI. 
Finny   Millionnaires. 

The  variety  in  the  shape  of  fish  eggs  and  the 
extent  of  their  production  are  greater  than  is  gen- 
erally known.  The  ova  of  various  fishes  differ 
remarkably  in  outward  appearance.  A  herring  egg 
is  about  the  size  of  a  grain  of  sago.  The  egg  of  the 
dogfish  is  as  large  as  that  of  the  pigeon.  Indeed, 
dogfish  eggs  are  eaten  in  Sweden  when  eggs  of 
the  feathered  creation  are  scarce. 

A  mass  of  fish-spawn  is  called  a  roe.  A  famous 
English  zoologist,  Buckland,  some  years  ago  ex- 
amined a  cod-roe  with  a  microscope.  He  found 
that  there  were  140  eggs,  on  the  average,  in  a 
grain,  making  67,200  eggs  to  the  ounce.  As  the 
roe  weighed  7^  pounds,  it  contained  7,526,400 
eggs !  Cod-roe  is  canned,  like  salmon  meat,  or 
smoked  to  fit  it  for  export.  It  is  an  agreeable 
dish  when  slightly  salted,  parboiled,  and  fried. 

Fish  excel  all  other  animals  in  prolific  power. 
Even  a  small  codfish  will  produce  2,000,000  eggs 
yearly  ;  and  it  is  said  that  a  single  pair  of  herrings 
and  their  progeny,  allowed  to  multiply  for  twenty 
years  without  interference,  would  supply  the  whole 
world  with  abundance  of  food. 


138 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


The  average  number  of  ova  in  a  salmon  is 
twelve  thousand.  If  all  these  eggs  hatched  out 
and  the  fry  reached  maturity,  there  would  be 
twelve  thousand  salmon,  whose  produce,  at  the 
same  rate,  would  be  in  the  next  season,  144,000,- 


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000.  Were  it  not  that  vast  numbers  of  their  eggs 
are  destroyed  by  various  causes,  fish  would  multi- 
ply so  rapidly  that  the  ocean  would  become  almost 
impassable. 

There  are  many  questions  connected  with  the 
spawning  of  fish  which  zoologists  have  not  yet 
been  able  to  settle.  We  know  of  the  great  waste 
of  fish  life  which  must  occur  in  the  sea  —  of  the 


FINNY  MILLIONNAIRES.  1 39 

countless  millions  of  eggs  which  are  devoured  by 
enemies.  We  know  also  that  out  of  every  million 
of  young  fish  only  a  small  number  will  ever  become 
of  any  mercantile  value. 

But  what  we  should  like  to  know  is,  Why  is 
a  fish,  whose  ova  are  reckoned  by  millions,  scarcer 
than  many  a  fish  yielding  eggs  only  in  thousands  ? 
A  fair-sized  cod  sheds  over  three  millions  and 
a  half  of  eggs.  The  flounder  is  almost  equally 
prolific.  The  roe  of  the  herring,  however,  aver- 
ages only  about  37,000  eggs.  Yet  herrings  are 
much  more  plentiful  than  flounders  or  cod.  No 
convincing  reason  for  this  singular  fact  has  so  far 
been  offered. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  cod  spawn  only  every 
other  year.  Even  if  this  assertion  were  true,  it 
would  not  be  a  satisfactory  explanation  ;  for  the 
cod  has  a  hundred  times  as  many  eggs  as  the 
herring.  Perhaps  some  unusually  clever  man  of 
science  will  make  this  puzzling  subject  clear  to  us 
before  long. 

Sturgeon  roe  is  made  into  caviare  in  Russia, 
and  an  extensive  commerce  in  this  preparation 
has  sprung  up  in  recent  times.  The  roe  is  spread 
on  a  large,  strong  sieve,  which  covers  a  wooden 
receptacle,  and  is  pressed  back  and  forth  till  the 
grains  have  passed  through,  leaving  the  muscle 
and   fat   behind.     The    sifted  grains,  mixed  with 


140  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

salt,  are  stirred  with  an  immense  wooden  fork, 
having  ten  prongs.  When  the  salt  has  touched 
every  grain,  the  whole  mass  swells,  and,  on  being 
agitated  with  the  fork,  gives  forth  a  noise  like  the 
grating  of  sand.  This  noise  is  the  sign  that  the 
caviare  is  made. 

Caviare  is  the  most  celebrated  of  Russian  arti- 
cles of  food,  and  is  becoming  better  known  in 
America.  It  is  very  nutritious.  Russia  exports 
10,000,000  pounds  of  it  every  year. 


Lesson  XLII. 
Meat  without  Bones. 


Lobsters  are  not  ocean  sailors  ;  they  prefer  the 
dark  nooks  of  a  rocky  coast,  where  they  lie  in 
wait  to  seize  on  unwary  intruders.  A  piece  of 
fish  is,  however,  just  as  acceptable  as  any  thing 
else,  and  fishermen  take  advantage  of  this  fact  to 
lure  the  lobsters  out  of  their  watery  dens  into 
wicker  traps. 

These  traps  are  called  pots.  Each  pot  is  about 
three  feet  long  and  two  feet  wide,  and  has  an 
arched  top  and  a  flat  bottom.  At  the  end  of  the 
pot  is  an  opening  for  the  ingress  of  the  lobster. 
Around    this    opening   are   placed    short,    flexible 


MEAT   WITHOUT  BONES. 


41 


pieces  of  wood,  projecting  into  the  basket,  so 
arranged  that  they  will  easily  separate  and  allow 
the  lobster  to  enter,  but  their  points  close  together 
after  him,  and  prevent  his  egress. 

There  is  a  door  on  the  top  through  which  the 
lobster   is  taken  out.     A    heavy  stone   is    placed 


CRABS*.  LOBSTCRTF.AP3 


inside  each  pot  in  order  to  sink  it.  Bait,  generally 
a  fish's  head,  is  placed  inside  it  ;  a  line  is 
attached  to  the  pot,  which  is  sunk  to  the  bottom 
at  low  tide,  and  the  other  end  of  the  line  is  fast- 
ened to  a  block  of  light  wood,  called  a  buoy. 

The  fishermen  go  out  in  their  boats,  and  drop 
a  pot  every  few  yards  along  the  shore.  During 
the  season    of  lobster   fishing,    which  lasts    from 


142  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

March  to  August,  hundreds  of  the  buoys  may  be 
seen  off  the  New  England  coast,  bobbing  up  and 
down  like  so  many  seals'  heads.  The  pots  are 
raised  every  morning,  the  lobsters  taken  out,  the 
bait  is  renewed,  and  the  pots  are  dropped  again 
into  the  water. 

The  lobsters  are  very  fierce,  when  freshly 
caught,  and  pinch  savagely  with  their  strong  claws 
whatever  comes  within  their  reach.  Thrown  to- 
gether in  the  boat,  they  will  tear  off  one  another's 
claws  and  legs,  if  precautions  be  not  taken  to  pre- 
vent such  damage.  The  lobster-catchers  insert 
wooden  pegs  in  the  hinge  of  each  pair  of  pincers 
to  keep  these  from  closing. 

If  the  lobsters  are  to  be  kept  alive  for  several 
days,  they  are  put  into  a  long  wooden  box,  with 
numerous  holes  bored  in  it,  which  is  moored  near 
the  shore.  If,  however,  the  fish  are  to  be  mar- 
keted immediately,  they  are  carried  to  the  boiling 
shed,  and  thrown  into  a  caldron  of  hot  water. 

Sometimes  they  are  exposed  for  sale  alive,  doubt 
as  to  their  freshness  being  thereby  put  out  of  the 
question.  They  are  conveyed  from  the  seashore 
in  a  floating  lobster  car,  the  finer  specimens  being 
selected  for  the  city  markets.  Small  lobsters  are 
sold  to  the  canners. 

In  the  cannery,  the  lobsters  are  boiled  in  large 
coppers.     Removed  thence  by  scoops,  the  fish  are 


MEAT   WITHOUT  BONES.  1 43 

thrown  on  long  tables,  and  the  flesh  is  then 
extracted  by  various  appliances.  A  workman, 
called  a  cracker,  breaks  the  claws  with  a  light 
cleaver.  The  cracker  is  usually  so  dexterous  as 
to  need  to  strike  each  claw  but  one  blow.  The 
lobster's  meat  is  picked  out  with  forks  by  young 
women,  and  deposited  in  large  tubs. 

Other  workers  pack  the  meat  into  cans,  weigh- 
ing each  can  and  taking  care  to  have  the  requisite 
amount  of  meat  in  it,  before  passing  it  to  the 
solderer.  This  workman  closes  the  can  with 
solder,  leaving,  however,  a  minute  hole,  through 
which  the  enclosed  air  is  expelled  during  an  after 
boiling  in  a  bath-caldron. 

The  cans  are  removed,  when  it  is  judged  that 
no  more  air  remains  to  be  driven  out,  completely 
sealed,  and  subjected  to  a  second  boiling  lasting 
several  hours.  After  labels  are  pasted  on,  the 
cans  are  ready  for  sale.  More  lobsters  are  thus 
packed  on  the  coast  of  Maine  than  anywhere  else 
in  the  United  States. 

The  Maritime  Provinces  of  Canada  also  do  a 
heavy  export  business  in  canned  lobsters.  Over 
14,000,000  one-pound  tins  of  this  fish  are  sent 
annually  into  the  markets  of  the  world  from  the 
ports  of  New  Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Prince 
Edward  Island.  An  extensive  trade  has  also 
sprung  up  in  those  countries  in  shipping  live 
lobsters  to  the  United  States. 


144  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Notwithstanding  the  wonderful  abundance  of 
lobsters,  there  are  signs  that  the  yield  is  falling 
off  in  consequence,  no  doubt,  of  the  enormous 
drain  on  the  sources  of  the  supply.  Four  or  five 
of  the  fish  are  needed  to  make  one  pound  of  the 
meat  packed  in  cans.  Lobster-packers  will  not 
take  the  trouble  to  pick  out  the  flesh  from  all  the 
claws.  This  waste  will,  at  no  distant  day,  result 
in  serious  injury  to  the  lobster  fishery. 

The  government  has  taken  some  steps  to  pre- 
vent the  lobster-catchers  from  ruining  their  own 
occupation.  Any  one  having  in  his  possession 
a  live  lobster,  less  than  ten  inches  in  length,  is 
liable  to  be  arrested  and  fined.  Lobsters  must 
not  be  canned  between  any  other  dates  than  the 
first  of  March  and  the  first  of  August. 

There  is  no  other  edible  which  conveys  phos- 
phorus into  the  human  system  so  readily  as  the 
flesh  of  oysters,  lobsters,  and  crabs.  For  this 
reason  the  meat  of  some  one  of  these  fishes  should 
form  part  of  the  diet  of  every  person  engaged  in 
any  vocation  which  involves  much  wear  of  the 
nerves.  Some  such  consideration  must  cause  the 
steadily  increasing  demand  in  all  large  cities  for 
these  sea  products.  As  repairers  of  broken-down, 
nervous  systems,  they  have  no  equals. 


MACKEREL.  145 

Lesson  XLIII. 

Mackerel. 

In  early  spring,  immense  shoals,  or  schools,  of 
mackerel  make  their  appearance  in  the  Atlantic 
coast  waters  of  Virginia  and  Maryland.  Striking 
northward,  the  fish  visit,  successively,  Cape  May, 
Sandy  Hook,  Block  Island,  Cape  Cod,  and  various 
other  points.  The  mackerel  can  be  traced  as  far 
as  Labrador.  How  much  farther  they  go,  no  one 
can  tell.  They  are  caught  in  drift  nets,  shot  into 
the  sea  from  fishing  smacks.  The  nets,  being 
weighted  at  one  side  with  lead,  hang  vertically  in 
the  water.  Each  net  is  supported  by  a  rope, 
floated  by  means  of  large  corks.  A  buoy  is  fast- 
ened at  each  end  of  the  net,  which  is  often  five  or 
six  miles  in  length.  The.  lead  weights  hold  the 
net  steady.  The  mackerel  strike  the  net,  entan- 
gling their  gills  in  its  meshes,  which  are  made  just 
large  enough  to  admit  the  fishes'  heads.  The 
mackerel  cannot  go  forward,  because  each  opening 
is  too  small  to  let  the  body  of  a  fish  pass  through  ; 
nor  can  they  withdraw,  for  the  moment  a  fish's 
head  is  through  a  mesh,  the  gills  open.  The 
mackerel  do  not  even  try  to  back  out  of  their  traps, 
but  strive  constantly  to  go  forward.  Each  net  is 
stretched  across  the  path  of  a  school. 


146 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


Seines  are  also  often  used.  A  seine  is  a  single 
net  with  a  corked  line  above  and  a  leaded  line 
below.  A  drift-net  is  generally  composed  of 
several    nets,    joined    together.     The    locality   in 


which  mackerel  are  caught  has  an  influence  in 
determining  their  commercial  value.  The  finest 
mackerel  in  Europe  are  those  taken  off  the  coasts 
of  Ireland  and  Norway.  The  best  offered  for  sale 
here  are  caught  in  New  England  shore  waters. 
There  is  yet  much  to  be  learned  concerning  the 


MACKEREL.  1 47 

habits  of  this  valuable  fish,  on  whose  migratory 
movements  so  many  persons  depend  for  a  living. 
A  Provincetown  smack  netted  in  two  consecutive 
nights  5,600  mackerel.  The  next  night's  fishing 
was  rewarded  with  just  one  fish  !  As  the  Massa- 
chusetts catch  of  mackerel  was  385,000  barrels  in 
1 83 1,  and  as  the  present  yearly  number  of  barrels 
is  for  that  State  about  one-fifth  as  many,  it  is  plain 
that  the  fish  must  have  grown  scarcer  on  our  North 
Atlantic  coast.  Higher  prices  and  superior  fishing 
appliances  fail  to  bring  them  into  our  markets. 

For  export,  mackerel  are  salted  and  packed  in 
kegs.  Canned  mackerel  is  rapidly  coming  into 
favor.  The  fresh  fish  are  hardly  ever  seen  beyond 
the  seaboard,  only  30,000  barrels  of  them  being 
consumed  yearly  in  the  whole  of  the  United  States. 
The  mackerel  is  much  esteemed,  its  flesh  having 
an  agreeable  flavor,  but,  as  usually  prepared  for 
the  table,  it  is  not  readily  digested  on  account  of 
the  large  proportion  of  oil  in  it.  This  difficulty 
vanishes  when  science  is  applied  to  the  cooking  of 
the  fish.  Mackerel  should  be  simmered,  after 
being  boiled,  three  or  four  times  as  long  as  any 
other  fish,  except  salmon. 

Boston  smoked  mackerel  has  become  a  quite 
popular  article  of  food  in  late  years.  All  the  fish 
to  be  cured  by  smoking  are  brought  into  the  city 
fresh,  packed  in  ice.     The  pompano,  a  member  of 


148  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

the  mackerel  family,  is  the  finest  fish  in  sub-tropi- 
cal seas,  and  usually  brings  a  dollar  a  pound  in 
Northern  cities.  It  is  caught  off  the  Chorillos 
district  of  the  Chilian  coast,  but  is  not  always  to 
be  obtained.  Perhaps  this  choice  fish  might  be 
successfully  propagated  in  the  warm  waters  wash- 
ing the  Florida  beaches.  The  Spanish  mackerel 
is  another  much-hunted  fish.  It  is  fat,  delicate, 
and  savory.  Being  much  scarcer  than  the  ordinary 
mackerel,  it  is  of  course  higher  in  price. 


Lesson  XLIV. 

Two  Important  Fishes. 

The  herring  fishery  is  very  important.  Over 
3,000,000,000  herring  are  taken  out  of  the  North 
Sea  every  year  by  English,  Norwegian,  Dutch,  and 
Scotch  fishermen.  At  least  as  many  more  must  be 
killed  by  larger  fish,  animals,  and  sea-birds.  When 
the  schools  of  herring  appear  on  the  Atlantic  coast, 
they  are  always  followed  by  various  species  of 
large  voracious  fish.  As  the  herrings  swim  close  to 
the  surface,  many  readily  become  the  prey  of  the 
flocks  of  gulls,  kittywakes,  cormorants,  and  sea- 
hawks,  which  are  ever  alert  to  take  toll  from  the 
deep.     In  seas  farther  north,  millions  on  millions 


TWO  IMPORTANT  FISHES. 


49 


of  the  fish  are  destroyed  by  seals,  walruses,  whales, 
and  other  marine  animals.  Yet  man,  bird,  fish,  and 
beast  do  not  capture  probably  more  than  one  out 
of  ten  of  the  herring. 

Instinct  impels  this  fish   to   seek   the   shallow 
shore-waters  to  spawn.    Where  herrings  migrate  to 


after  spawning  is  not  known,  though  the  secret  has 
been  sought  for  ages.  One  theory  is  that  they 
retire  to  the  Arctic  seas  to  recuperate  there,  those 
waters  being  swarmed  with  the  smaller  forms  of 
marine  animal  life.  Another  explanation  is  that 
the  fish  seek  the  deeper  parts  of  the  ocean,  and 


150  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

remain  out  of  reach  of  the  fisherman's  snares  till 
the  spawning  season  again  draws  near. 

Herrings  are  caught,  like  mackerel,  in  drift  nets. 
Often  one  net  is  joined  to  another  until  a  woven 
wall,  five  or  six  miles  long,  is  formed.  The  vessels 
sail  or  drift  till  a  school  of  the  fish  is  sighted. 
Then  the  nets  are  set,  beginning  with  a  buoy. 
The  first  buoy  is  called  the  "captain,"  and  in  the 
night  time  has  a  lantern  on  top.  It  is  not  uncom- 
mon for  herring  to  abandon  their  regular  spawning 
grounds  for  causes  which  no  one  has  ever  been 
able  to  find  out.  Many  a  district  of  poor  fish- 
ing people  has  thus  been  suddenly  ruined.  Per- 
haps the  absence  of  food  in  their  accustomed 
spawning  haunts  might  furnish  a  reason  for  the 
desertion. 

It  was  through  the  herring  fishery  that  the 
Dutch  became  a  commercial  nation.  They  first 
brought  the  art  of  herring  pickling  to  its  present 
degree  of  perfection.  They  could  stay  out  from 
port  for  days ;  the  fish,  being  pickled  as  fast  as 
caught,  would  not  spoil.  A  great  trade  in  soused 
herrings  was  thus  developed,  other  mercantile  en- 
terprises followed,  and  the  largest  of  Holland's 
cities,  Amsterdam,  was  for  a  time  the  busiest 
port  on  the  globe.  In  one  sense,  then,  the  Dutch 
are  correct  in  saying  that  Amsterdam  is  built  on 
herring-bones.     Even  to-day  Dutch-cured  herrings, 


TWO  IMPORTANT  FISHES.  151 

though  caught  in  the  same  waters  as  the  herrings 
cured  by  the  English,  bear  a  higher  price. 

The  feeding  grounds  of  the  herring  are  also 
frequented  by  the  cod,  a  fish  that  contributes  largely 
to  the  annual  stores  of  human  food  taken  from  the 
sea.  The  prolific  nature  of  the  cod  seems  to  be  a 
Providential  favor  shown  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
frozen  North.  This  fish  affords  them  an  exhaust- 
less  supply  of  food  —  an  inestimable  gift,  since 
grain  cannot  be  raised  on  their  barren  lands.  A 
considerable  quantity  of  provision  for  warmer 
countries  also  is  furnished  by  the  cod. 

The  black  cod  abounds  in  the  waters  of  our 
Pacific  seaboard.  This  fish  is  regarded  as  much 
superior  to  the  Newfoundland  cod.  The  cod  of 
Washington  coast  waters,  when  handled,  leaves 
the  skin  black.  Its  common  name,  the  coal-fish, 
seems  therefore  very  appropriate.  Its  flesh,  how- 
ever, is  rich  and  of  delicate  fibre. 

The  cod-fishery,  which  is  prosecuted  from  June 
till  October,  provides  occupation  for  thousands  of 
men.  Long-line  fishing  is  the  mode  in  which  the 
fish  are  most  generally  captured.  Hooks-and-lines 
and  seines  are  also  employed.  The  work  of  laying 
the  lines  is  done  early  in  the  morning.  A  captain 
buoy  is  anchored  at  the  starting-point,  and  the 
vessel  sails  away,  laying  her  lines  as  she  goes,  and 
now  and  then  putting  on  a  small  anchor  to  hold 


152  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

them  steady.  Large  cork-floats  keep  the  lines 
from  sinking.  At  intervals  of  ten  feet,  small  lines, 
about  a  yard  long,  are  tied  on  the  big  rope,  and 
are  hooked  and  baited. 

After  all  the  lines  have  been  laicl^  the  smack  is 
put  about,  and,  having  regained  the  captain  buoy, 
she  begins  to  haul  in  the  lines.  Every  vessel  has 
a  well  into  which  the  cod  are  thrown.  The  water 
in  it  is  constantly  changing,  sea  water  pouring  in 
and  out,  as  the  smack  moves.  Occasionally  a  cod, 
having  been  badly  hooked,  breaks  away.  Such  a 
loss  is  of  course  without  remedy,  unless  the  vessel 
happens  to  have  on  board  a  retriever  as  good  as 
Sailor. 

This  was  the  name  of  a  famous  dog,  belonging 
to  the  master  of  a  small  smack  which  cruised  in 
the  North  Sea  on  the  Dogger  Bank.  While  the 
lines  were  being  hauled  in,  he  used  to  stand  with 
his  forepaws  resting  on  the  gunwale  of  the  boat, 
watching  the  unhooking  of  the  cod.  When  a  fish 
broke  away,  Sailor  would  plunge  into  the  water 
after  it,  and  rarely  failed  to  bring  it  back.  In  one 
day  he  saved  twenty  fishes. 


OTHER  FISH   TO  FRY.  1 53 

Lesson   XLV. 
Other  Fish  to  Fry. 

Few  persons  have  an  accurate  idea  of  the  extent 
of  commerce  in  that  little  fish,  the  sardine.  The 
largest  shoals  of  sardines  are  found  in  the  shore 
waters  of  Sardinia.  To  that  island  the  fish  owe 
their  name.  The  sardine  is  a  dainty  morsel, 
whether  cooked  fresh,  as  it  is  prepared  for  eating 
in  France,  or  salted  as  in  Italy,  or  spiced  and 
sugared  as  in  Norway. 

The  sardine  fishery  is  pre-eminently  a  French 
industry.  The  fish,  fresh  or  salted,  are  sold  in 
barrels.  But  the  preserving  of  sardines  in  oil 
forms  the  most  valuable  branch  of  the  trade, 
being  estimated  to  amount  to  over  $5,000,000  annu- 
ally. The  sardine  is  termed  the  "  manna  of  the 
ocean,"  and,  to  the  French  fisherman,  the  phrase 
seems  quite  fitting.  Over  13,000  fishing-boats 
derive  employment  from  the  sardine  catch  along 
the  southern  coast  of  France. 

The  anchovy  is  another  fish  of  which  the 
catching  and  preserving  give  extensive  employ- 
ment to  French  fishermen.  This  fish  is  also 
caught  in  the  Zuyder  Zee,  and  off  the  coast  of 
Cornwall,  England.     But   the   anchovy  fishery  is 


154  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

very  much  inferior  in  importance  to  the  sardine. 
The  latter  fishery  increases  in  value  every  year. 

The  United  States  annually  imports  sardines 
and  anchovies  to  the  value  of  $800,000.  Other 
countries  have  tried  to  compete  with  France  in 
the  canning  of  sardines  in  oil.  Brazil,  Spain,  and 
Italy  have  met  with  partial  success  in  that  line. 
Our  own  north-eastern  coast  abounds  at  certain 
seasons  of  the  year  with  herring  fry.  These  are 
put  up  in  tins  labelled  as  sardine  cans. 

The  mullet  is  scarce  in  our  markets,  and  high- 
priced  everywhere.  It  has  been  called  the  "  par- 
tridge of  the  sea."  Its  flesh  is  firm,  white,  free 
from  fat,  and  has  always  been  esteemed  one  of  the 
epicure's  greatest  luxuries.  In  ancient  Rome  this 
fish  was  held  in  the  most  extravagant  estimation, 
a  large  mullet  being  worth  its  weight  in  gold. 
The  conger  is  unknown  here,  but  in  the  Channel 
Islands,  in  London's  great  fish-market,  Billings- 
gate, and  on  the  north  coast  of  the  Mediterranean, 
this  ocean  eel  meets  with  a  ready  sale.  Its  huge, 
coarse,  snake-like  carcass  is  very  repulsive  to 
American  tastes. 

The  fresh-water  eel  is  a  valuable  fish  in  Europe, 
where  it  forms  the  principal  animal  food  of  large 
populations.  Salted,  smoked,  and  pickled,  the  eel 
gives  rise  to  an  extensive  trade.  Eels  were  once 
a  staple  article  of  the  diet  of  the    English  poor. 


OTHER   FISH   TO   FRY. 


55 


The  England  of  the  Middle  Ages,  abounding  in 
shallow  lakes  and  ponds,  and  full  of  sluggish 
streams  and  deep  marshes,  was  a  paradise  for  the 
eel-fisher.  The  silver  eel,  the  finest  kind,  is  found 
in  the  clearest  waters. 


Holland  sends,  every  spring,  to  Great  Britain, 
a  fleet  of  fishing-vessels,  each  one  having  a  well 
holding  about  20,000  eels.  The  eel  is  extremely 
oily,  and,  perhaps  for  that  reason,  is  not  a  general 
favorite  in  the  United  States.     In  Italy,  eels  are 


156  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

eaten  for  breakfast,  dinner,  and'  supper  by  the 
masses.  In  England  the  demand  usually  exceeds 
the  supply,  5,000  tons  of  eels  being  consumed 
there  yearly.  New  Zealand  waters  yield  the  lar- 
gest eels  in  the  world.  The  fish  reaches  therein 
about  six  feet  in  length  ;  and  quite  frequently  an 
eel  is  caught  that  will  weigh  twenty-five  pounds. 
These  giants  of  the  eel  family  are  split,  dried,  and 
cooked  as  wanted. 

The  products  of  the  Russian  fisheries  aggregate 
annually  1,000,000,000  pounds.  This  amount  far 
surpasses  the  fish-take  of  British  America.  Yet 
but  little  fish  is  exported  from  Russia,  most  of 
the  catch  being  consumed  by  the  Empire's  own 
population,  which  numbers  over  80,000,000.  The 
most  experienced  of  American  fish-curers  might 
learn  a  lesson  from  those  Russian  fishermen  who 
prepare  "  balyk  "  —  a  Tartar  term  for  fish. 

Sturgeons  are  cut  up  so  as  to  leave  only  the 
backs.  These  are  placed  in  a  wooden  receptacle, 
and  are  carefully  separated  from  one  another,  and 
from  the  wood,  by  layers  of  salt  having  a  little 
saltpetre  mixed  with  it.  Bay  leaves,  pepper,  and 
cloves  are  added.  After  twelve  days,  the  fish  is 
taken  out,  and  soaked  for  forty-eight  hours  in 
fresh  water ;  it  is  then  exposed  to  the  sun,  and 
finally  is  hung  in  sheds  open  at  the  sides.  It 
would  be  well  if  some  enterprising  dealer  would 


UNITED   STATES  FISHERIES.  157 

introduce   into  the   United    States  this   mode  of 
preserving  fish. 

In  the  Maldive  Islands,  fish  are  cured  by  the 
singular  method  of  wrapping  them  in  palm  leaves 
and  burying  them  in  the  sand.  This  process 
turns  the  fish  quite  hard.  The  natives  are 
counted  among  the  few  populations  that  eat 
sharks ;  India,  Japan,  and  the  Arctic  regions  con- 
taining the  other  shark-eating  peoples.  China 
carries  on  a  large  trade  in  sharks'  fins  with  India 
and  the  islands  of  Malaysia.  At  least  1,000,000 
pounds  of  this  strange  food  are  consumed  yearly 
by  the  Chinese. 


Lesson   XLVI. 
United  States  Fisheries. 

We  send  abroad  but  little  fish,  because  the  home 
demand  is  usually  greater  than  the  supply. 
Canned  fish  has,  however,  been  one  of  our  staple 
articles  of  export  since  the  rapid  development  of 
our  salmon  fishery.  The  yearly  value  of  all  our 
fisheries,  sea,  river,  and  lake,  is  placed  at  $90,- 
000,000. 

The  practice  of  saving  the  surplus  of  our  fish- 
product,  instead  of  salting  and  exporting  it,  has 


158  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

led,  in  some  of  our  seaboard  cities,  to  the  building 
of  cold-storage  warehouses.  In  them,  tons  of 
fresh  fish  are  kept  in  ice  safely  for  months.  In 
New  Orleans  one  fish-exporting  firm  is  using  a 
patented  process  of  freezing  water  into  a  cake  of 
ice  around  each  fish.  Packed  in  sawdust,  such  an 
ice-enveloped  fish  may,  without  danger  of  decay- 
ing, be  sent  any  distance. 

Much  money  is  invested  in  the  business  of 
drying  and  smoking  fish.  A  New  York  firm 
makes  a  specialty  of  smoked  sturgeon.  This  fish 
is  caught  in  strong  drift-nets  off  the  coast  of 
Florida.  These  nets  are  each  600  feet  long  and 
120  feet  deep.  A  sturgeon  of  500  pounds  weight 
is  not  an  uncommon  prize.  Once  in  a  while 
a  large  shark  is  captured.  Then  the  fishermen 
have  an  unwelcome  change  in  occupation  until  the 
sea-tiger  is  killed. 

Cutting  out  the  backbone  of  the  sturgeon  is  the 
first  step  in  getting  the  fish  ready  for  sale.  Then 
the  sides  are  packed  in  ice  and  forwarded  to  some 
Northern  city,  where  they  are  pickled,  dried,  and 
smoked.  The  smoke  producer  is  hickory  saw- 
dust. This  is  burned  in  a  close  room,  and  the 
fish  are  thoroughly  cooked.  Other  fish  are 
smoked  in  much  the  same  way. 

As  soon  as  possible  after  a  sturgeon  is  caught, 
the  roe  is  removed,  treated  to  several  washings, 


UNITED  STATES  FISHERIES. 


59 


and  is  then  packed  in  salt.  Eels,  herrings,  mack- 
erels, smelts,  and  halibut  are  also  smoked.  The 
demand  for  fish  cured  in  the  United  States  is 
growing  very  fast.  The  industry  promises  to 
become  extremely  valuable. 


In  delicacy  and  flavor,  the  fish  caught  in  our 
great  lakes  surpass  the  best  of  those  taken  in  the 
Atlantic.  No  salt-water  specimen  of  the  finny 
tribe  can  compare  with  a  Mackinaw  trout  or  a 
whitefish.  There  are  numerous  species  of  highly 
prized  fish  found  in  the  lakes ;    but,  as  an  article 


160  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

of  profitable  traffic,  the  whitefish  stands  first.  It 
is  plump-bodied,  free  from  small  bones,  with  firm, 
delicately-flavored  flesh,  separating  in  large  white 
flakes.  It  is  highly  nutritious,  yet  free  from  oil, 
and  is  regarded  as  the  prince  of  fresh-water  fishes. 

An  extract  of  fish  is  now  prepared  from  the 
meat  of  menhaden,  so  numerous  in  the  New  Eng- 
land coast  waters.  Chemical  analysis  shows  this 
preparation  to  contain  as  much  nutriment  as  Lie- 
big's  extract  of  beef.  Until  this  mode  of  utilizing 
the  menhaden  was  thought  out,  that  fish  was  caught 
mainly  for  its  oil,  which  is  used  in  dressing 
leather  and  in  making  lead  paints.  About  3,000,- 
000  gallons  of  menhaden  oil  are  barrelled  yearly, 
the  value  of  which  is  over  $1,100,000. 

Some  of  the  various  preparations  of  fish  put  up 
in  the  United  States  are  :  codfish  balls,  canned 
fish-chowder,  canned  smelts,  pickled  clams,  and 
scallops.  140,000,  men  and  7,000  vessels  are 
employed  in  the  United  States  fisheries.  The 
value  of  our  canned  fish-products  exceeds  $20,000- 
000  a  year. 

The  specific  fisheries  number  forty-seven,  the 
most  prominent  five  being  the  cod,  whale,  men- 
haden, salmon,  and  seal.  Massachusetts  is  the  State 
most  largely  interested  in  the  fisheries,  about 
20,000  of  her  citizens  making  a  livelihood  in  that 
industry.     The  value  of  England's  fish-product  is 


PET  AND   PEST.  l6l 

nearly  as  great  as  our  own.  Canada  ranks  next 
to  England.  The  oyster  fishery  is  the  most  profit- 
able one  in  the  United  States,  the  herring  in 
England,  and  the  cod   in  Canada. 

To  enable  home  fishermen  to  drive  Dutch 
herring  from  English  markets,  the  British  Gov- 
ernment from  1809  to  1826  paid  a  bounty  of  four 
shillings  on  each  barrel  of  herrings  cured  in 
England  and  Scotland.  In  1851  France  enacted 
a  law  giving  yearly,  every  owner  of  a  cod-fishing 
smack  fifty  francs  for  each  man  on  board.  Even  at 
the  very  beginning  of  our  own  national  life,  Con- 
gress sought  to  encourage  our  fisheries  by  grant- 
ing a  bounty  of  ten  cents  a  barrel  on  pickled  fish, 
and  by  taxing  foreigners  fifty  cents  a  quintal  on  all 
fish  they  sent  into  this  country.  These  laws 
signify  that  governments  consider  the  fishing 
industry  to  be  an  important  source  of  national 
wealth. 


Lesson  XLVII. 
Pet  and  Pest. 


Until  recent  times,  coursing  the  hare  was  a 
common  hunting  amusement  of  the  English 
nobility.  .  A  pair  of  greyhounds,  led  in  leash  by  a 
gamekeeper   till   a   hare   was    started,    served    as 


l62 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


weapons  of  destruction.  Greyhounds  cannot  follow- 
up  an  animal  by  scent,  but  they  are  so  swift  that 
they  seldom  lose  sight  of  their  prey. 

When  chasing  a  hare,  their  rapid  bounds  soon 
bring  them  within  reach  of  the  terrified  little 
animal,  and  its  soft  fur  is,  in  a  moment  after,  dyed 


with  blood.  The  dogs  usually  tore  the  hare  into 
shreds  before  any  of  the  lords  or  ladies,  who  took 
part  in  this  brutal  pastime,  could  ride  up  in  time  to 
see  the  little  creature  killed.  It  was  regarded,  for 
some  absurd  reason,  as  an  honor  to  be  present 
at  the  overtaking  of  the  game  by  the  hounds. 

A  well-known  first  cousin  of  the  hare  is  the 
rabbit.  Gentle,  harmless,  and  timid,  as  we  know 
the  rabbit  to  be,  it  is  nevertheless  the  most  destruc- 


PET  AND   PEST.  1 63 

tive  of  all  animal  pests  in  Australia,  Tasmania,  and 
New  Zealand.  So  rapidly  have  rabbits  increased  in 
number  in  those  countries,  during  recent  years, 
that  they  have  ruined  whole  districts.  Myriads  of 
these  animals  consume  every  blade  of  grass,  leaving 
sheep  and  cattle  to  starve.  So  serious  has  the 
danger  to  sheep-raisers  become,  that  the  Australian 
Government  has  offered  the  large  reward  of 
$125,000  for  any  method  of  exterminating  the 
pests. 

On  sheep  farms,  it  is  not  unusual  to  have  a 
dozen  men  engaged  in  scattering  poisoned  wheat 
where  the  rabbits  will  find  it.  The  skins  of  the 
animals  are  saved,  and,  packed  in  bales,  are  sent 
to  England.  In  one  year  the  colony  of  New 
Zealand  exported  12,360,000  skins,  valued  at 
$600,000.  A  premium  of  threepence  a  skin  is 
paid  by  the  Government. 

In  South  Australia,  there  are  several  factories 
for  canning  rabbit  meat  for  shipment  to  Europe. 
The  rabbits  are  caught  at  night,  dressed,  and  taken 
by  the  cart-load  to  the  factories,  the  skins,  however, 
not  being  stripped  off.  In  the  factory,  the  heads 
are  removed  —  to  be  afterwards  boiled  down  for 
jelly — the  legs  are  cut  off,  and  the  pelts  laid  aside. 
The  bodies  are  slightly  salted  (to  remove  the  blood), 
and  then  washed. 

Cans  are   filled  with   c.hopped-up   rabbit   meat, 


1 64  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

then  are  sealed  up,  placed  in  a  tank,  and  boiled  by 
steam  for  seven  or  eight  hours.  At  the  end  of 
the  boiling  period,  the  cans  are  taken  out,  and  the 
little  aperture  in  the  top  is  re-opened  to  permit  the 
steam  to  pass  off.  Before  any  air  can  enter,  the 
hole  is  again  soldered  over.  The  cans  are  left  to 
cool,  then  are  painted,  labelled,  and  boxed  up  for 
transportation. 

At  the  proper  season  of  the  year,  rabbits  may  be 
found  in  the  market  here  in  the  United  States. 
They  are  not  a  popular  article  of  diet  with  us.  The 
English  working  classes,  however,  regard  stewed 
rabbit  as  the  most  palatable  dish  known  to  the  art 
of  cookery.  Near  Ostend,  Belgium,  millions  of 
rabbits  are  raised  to  be  sold  in  England. 

In  France  these  animals  are  considered  excellent 
food.  About  70,000,000  are  consumed  there 
annually.  West  India  negroes,  who  will  greedily 
devour  snakes,  toads,  and  monstrous  centipedes, 
are,  singularly  enough,  afraid  to  taste  rabbit  meat. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  inhabitants  of  several  of 
the  islands  in  the  Greek  Archipelago  live  almost 
entirely  on  rabbits'  flesh,  preferring  it  to  fish. 


OUR  FLYING  GAME.  165 

Lesson  XLVIII. 
Our  Flying  Game. 

What  schoolboy,  passing  through  a  clover  lot  in 
early  June,  has  not  had  his  ear  delighted  with  the 
clear  musical  carol  of  "  Bob-o'-link !  Bob-o'-link ! "  ? 
The  musician  might  be  seen,  darting  hither  and 
thither  in  the  field,  intent  on  securing  the  where- 
withal of  a  meal.  Admiring  his  swift,  graceful 
flights,  you  would  never  suspect  that  in  his  old  age, 
six  months  away,  his  body  will  have  become, 
through  over-feeding,  almost  too  heavy  to  be  sus- 
tained, for  any  length  of  time,  by  the  wings  which 
now  convey  him  with  such  lightness  and  speed. 

The  bobolink  is  a  bird  of  passage.  In  early 
summer  he  crosses  the  Canada  border,  and  lingers 
for  some  weeks  in  the  adjoining  tier  of  States, 
contented  with  such  food  as  insects  and  grass-seed. 
Late  in  August  he  passes  southward  to  the  reedy 
banks  of  the  Delaware.  There  he  turns  into  the 
reed-bird,  and,  instead  of  gladdening  the  school- 
boy's musical  soul,  he  pleases  the  epicure's  palate. 
His  plump,  well-flavored  little  carcass  brings  a 
high  price  in  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  markets, 
and  professional  gunners  shoot  him  early  and  late. 

Every  day  in  September,  about  30,000  reed-birds 


1 66  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

are  bagged  along  the  Delaware  River  and  its 
affluents.  The  shooting-grounds  extend  from 
Bordentown  to  Bombay  Hook.  In  October  the 
millions  of  birds  that  have  escaped  the  sportsman's 
shotgun  forsake  the  reed-swamps,  where  they  have 
been  feasting  for  a  month  or  more,  and  wing  their 
way  farther  south. 

The  wild-rice  marshes  of  South  Carolina  become 
their  next  feeding-ground.  There  they  gorge 
themselves  for  weeks.  The  sweet  singer  of  leafy 
June  changes  his  name  once  more.  He  becomes 
the  far-famed  rice-bird,  a  dainty,  indeed,  for  the 
grilling-iron,  and  consequently  a  target  for  all  the 
fowlers  in  the  district  round  about  his  feasting- 
place. 

When  the  cool  nights  of  November  come,  the 
rice-bird  sets  out  on  a  final  migration.  His 
objective  point  is  some  West  India  lagoon.  His 
life  in  the  tropics  is  a  dream  of  joy.  Fanned  by 
winds  of  balm,  he  gluts  his  appetite  on  the  nutri- 
tious seeds  ^of  the  guinea-grass.  The  whilom  bob- 
olink attains,  in  his  winter  home,  a  perfection  of 
flavor  denied  to  any  other  bird  of  passage.  He 
has  lost  the  ability  to  whistle  music,  but  he  has 
gained  flesh.  Those  who  have  eaten  him  in  Phila- 
delphia, in  Charleston,  and  in  Havana,  say  that  his 
gain  is  our  gain,  while  his  loss  is  his  own. 

The   canvas-back   duck,   lean   on   its  arrival  in 


OUR  FLYING   GAME.  1 67 

the  United  States,  becomes  plump  by  November, 
weighing  about  three  pounds,  and  is  then  in  high 
order  for  the  table.  There  are  but  few  birds  more 
esteemed  by  gourmands. 

In  Baltimore  the  dealers  in  feathered  game  pack 
the  ducks  in  vaults,  which  are  built  into  the  walls 
of  the  shops,  and  are  so  arranged  that  their  interi- 
ors can  be  kept,  by  a  freezing  process,  at  a  very  low 
temperature.  Hundreds  of  barrels  of  canvas-backs 
are  sent,  in  the  season,  from  Baltimore  and  New 
York,  by  steamer  to  Liverpool  and  Paris.  Taken 
from  the  refrigerator  vaults,  the  birds  are  put  in 
ice,  and  thus  usually  reach  their  destination  in 
excellent  condition.  The  exporting  of  prairie- 
chickens  to  Europe  is  a  St.  Louis  industry  com- 
mencing to  assume  large  proportions.  These 
chickens  belong  to  the  Grouse  tribe,  and,  next  to 
the  passenger  pigeons,  are  the  most  abundant  of 
our  game-birds.  One  dealer  in  New  York  has 
received  twenty  tons  of  prairie-chickens  in  one 
consignment. 

A  poulterer  in  the  same  city  will  sell  200,000 
game-birds,  of  various  kinds,  in  six  months.  Large 
numbers  are  sold  in  other  cities  of  the  Union 
every  week  in  the  year.  The  weight  of  wild-bird 
meat  consumed  annually  in  this  country  is  enor- 
mous. One  stands  aghast  at  the  long  row  of 
figures  required  to  represent   the   amount. 


1 68  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

The  partridge,  though  shy  in  the  extreme,  builds 
its  nest  within  easy  flight  of  tilled  land.  Young 
partridges  feed  on  herbs  and  insects  —  food  which 
gives  their  flesh  a  bad  taste.  When  the  partridge 
is  about  four  months  old  it  begins  to  eat  grains. 
At  the  close  of  the  year,  the  birds  are  in  the  best 
condition  to  be  handed  to  the  cook.  They  are 
fat,  and  their  meat  has  an  agreeable  gamey  flavor. 

In  ancient  times,  the  Israelites,  wandering 
through  Egyptian  deserts,  fed  on  quail ;  and,  even 
to-day,  quails  are  so  plentiful  in  Egypt  that  the 
people  cannot  consume  the  numbers  captured 
during  the  season  for  hunting  them.  The  birds 
are  salted  down  for  future  use,  or  dried  in  the  sun. 
At  migration  time,  sections  of  the  Mediterranean 
shore  will  be  almost  covered  with  quails.  They 
are  sent  alive,  by  the  steamer-load,  from  two 
widely  distant  ports,  Algiers  and  Alexandria,  to 
Marseilles.  Thence  they  are  conveyed  to  all  parts 
of  the  Continent. 

The  quails  that  fly  across  the  Mediterranean 
reach  the  European  side  so  fatigued  that  they  are 
easily  caught  with  nets.  Not  unfrequently  they 
are  taken  by  hand,  being  too  wearied  to  move 
when  approached.  The  Greek  peasant-women 
dress  them  as  for  market,  flatten  them  between 
boards  loaded  with  stones,  and  then  pack  them  in 
jars  with  layers  of  salt.    This  salt  quail  meat  forms 


EVERYBODY'S  CHOICE.  1 69 

an  article  of  commerce,  and  is  exported  in  small 
casks.  Millions  of  quails  are  sent  annually  from 
Southern  Italy  to  London,  Paris,  Amsterdam, 
Vienna,  and  Berlin. 


Lesson  XLIX. 
Everybody's  Choice. 

The  mention  of  the  word  Fruit  seldom  fails  to 
arouse  thoughts  of  bloom,  of  fragrance,  of  delight 
of  palate,  of  benefit  to  the  body.  Fruits  always 
begin  with  flowers — not  such  flowers  as  roses  and 
lilies,  which  come  and  go,  casting  their  brightness 
on  the  world  for  only  a  few  weeks  ;  but  flowers  that 
might  be  called  prophets,  for  they  foretell  luscious 
treats  in  generous  autumn. 

No  one  ever  refuses  fruit.  Every  one  who  has 
the  opportunity  of  eating  it  makes  the  best  use  of 
his  chance.  And  the  charms  of  fruit  do  not 
wait  for  fire  to  bring  them  forth.  We  may  bake 
or  boil  fruits,  but  there  are  very  few  that  are  not 
eatable  just  as  they  come  from  Nature's  hand. 
Because  they  are  so  useful  to  us,  both  as  foods 
and  as  restorers  of  health,  Providence  has  endowed 
them  with  all  sorts  of  wiles  to  persuade  us  to 
approach  and  to  eat. 


170 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


It  is  good  for  us,  too,  that  Nature  yields  her 
fruits  in  abundance.  No  miser's  hand  is  that 
which  converts  the  orange-tree  into  an  Eldorado 
of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  hangs  in  such  pro- 
fuseness  the  crimson  clusters  on  the  currant- 
bushes.     Does    your   garden    contain    more    fruit 


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than  you  can  eat  ?  Remember  those  poor  people 
who  have  none,  and  who  cannot  afford  to  buy 
any.  Charity  is  the  greatest  of  the  virtues  ;  and 
is  well  shown  by  the  gift  of  a  few  bunches  of 
grapes,  or  of  a  box  of  strawberries,  to  some  poor 
creature   who    has    lain    for   weeks,    perhaps   for 


EVERYBODY'S   CHOICE.  171 

months,   on  the  couch    of   sickness.     It    is    more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive. 

Fruit  is  so  valuable  that  great  care  should  be 
taken  to  have  in  our  gardens  and  orchards  only 
the  finest  varieties,  the  sweetest  and  the  most 
prolific.  Fortunately,  fruit-culture  is  no  longer 
a  hap-hazard  process,  but  is  conducted  on  scien- 
tific principles.  The  best  kinds  of  fruits  can  be 
grown  quite  as  easily  as  the  worst.  All  fruiting- 
plants  require  as  much  care,  attention,  and  watch- 
fulness as  rose-bushes. 

The  market  meaning  of  the  term  "fruit"  is  only 
a  part  of  the  meaning  in  which  it  is  employed  by 
the  botanists.  The  true  fruit  of  a  plant  is  the  seed- 
case,  when  ripe  —  the  portion  of  the  flower  which 
in  its  earliest  form  was  the  ovary.  Many  actual 
fruits  are  really  seeds,  as  are  grains  of  all  kinds. 
But  every  one  of  these  fruits  consists  of  a  seed 
and  its  enclosing  case,  called  a  pericarp,  though 
this  may  be  only  a  simple  shell.  Probably  there 
are  25,000  of  these  seed-like  fruits.  Some  of 
them  are  very  beautiful,  as  the  grains  of  the  forget- 
me-not  and  the  seeds  of  the  larch. 

Another  25,000  botanical  fruits  may  be  in- 
stanced as  finished  models  of  those  natural  urns, 
vases,  and  cups  which  Art  has,  in  all  ages, 
delighted  to  imitate  in  gold,  silver,  and  marble. 
How  beautiful  is  the   sculptured   produce  of  the 


172  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

pine-tree,  the  round  head  of  the  poppy,  the  carved 
cup  of  the  acorn  ! 

Another  great  company  of  the  botanical  fruits 
presents  itself  in  the  berries.  In  these,  it  should 
seem,  there  would  be  no  variety  in  ornament,  no 
carving,  no  filagree-work.  Nature,  however,  is 
not  stinted  in  resources.  Every  berry  is  round  or 
oval,  indeed,  but  how  the  colors  vary  ! 

No  distinct  line  can  be  drawn  between  fruits 
popularly  so  called,  and  the  true  fruits,  the  botani- 
cal ones.  Not  seldom  the  idea  of  what  is  a  fruit 
changes  with  the  latitude  and  the  people.  In 
Palestine,  for  example,  myrtle  berries  are  eaten 
by  all  classes.  The  botanical  fruits  also  include 
various  esculents,  commonly  classed  with  the 
vegetables,  as  beans,  cucumbers,  tomatoes.  From 
these  illustrations,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  ovary 
undergoes  some  curious  changes  while  growing. 
When  ripe,  it  rarely  bears  any  resemblance  to  its 
original  form  in  the  flower. 

A  stone  fruit,  like  the  cherry  or  the  plum,  has 
the  inner  membrane  of  the  ovary  hardened  into 
a  kernel  enclosing  the  true  seed,  the  outer  mem- 
brane remaining  as  a  thin  skin,  and  the  pulpy 
tissue  is  what  is  generally  termed  the  fruit.  In 
the  apple,  when  the  blossom  falls  off,  the  green 
cup,  which  held  the  flower,  turns  in  to  infold  the 
ovary,    and    a   pulp   develops    around    the    seeds. 


EVERYBODY'S  CHOICE.  1 73 

A  reverse  mode  of  growth  may  be  seen  in  the 
strawberry.  In  this  fruit,  the  receptacle  of  the 
flower  enlarges  and  thickens,  and  the  seed-vessels 
appear  on  its  surface  as  small  grains. 

In  raspberries  and  blackberries,  the  flower  re- 
ceptacle grows  into  a  white,  pithy  spike,  and  the 
seed-vessels,  or  pericarps,  cluster  round  it,  each 
pericarp  being  a  separate  bit  of  pulp.  The  pine- 
apple is  a  mass  of  many  flowers  and  ovaries  which 
have  all  grown  into  a  fragrant  and  juicy  cone 
having  a  central  column. 

Limiting  the  term  fruits  to  its  ordinary  signifi- 
cation, the  whole  number  of  them  in  the  world  is 
small  in  proportion  to  the  whole  number  of  flower- 
ing plants.  There  are  probably  500  market  fruits. 
Many  fruits  are  peculiar  to  the  Pacific  Islands, 
and  are  never  to  be  purchased  in  the  United 
States,  because  they  are  too  perishable  to  be  con- 
veyed across  the  water.  There  are  other  fruits 
which  have  been  introduced  from  foreign  coun- 
tries, and  are  carefully  cultivated  here.  The 
most  prominent  are  :  the  apple,  pear,  quince, 
peach,  apricot,  plum,  cherry,  grape,  gooseberry, 
currant,  strawberry,  melon,  and  raspberry.  How 
many  native  berries  can  you  mention  ? 


174  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson   L. 
More  about  Fruit. 

Most  of  the  cultivated  fruits  of  this  country 
were  brought  here  by  the  early  settlers  from 
England.  But  the  interesting  question  arises : 
Whence  were  derived,  in  the  first  instance,  those 
fruits  not  indigenous  to  Great  Britain  ?  The  his- 
tory of  any  very  ancient  fruit,  such  as  the  fig, 
resembles,  in  many  particulars,  a  romance,  so 
curiously  blended  is  fact  with  fable. 

Fruits,  like  cereals,  were  known  in  the  earliest 
ages  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge.  Fruit- 
culture  in  England  was  introduced  by  the  Romans, 
that  wonderful  people  to  whom  primitive  Britain 
was  indebted  for  its  first  lessons  in  other  useful 
arts,  such  as  road-making  and  architecture.  It 
was  the  Romans  that  brought  into  the  island  the 
onion  and  those  early  spring  vegetables  used  as 
"greens."  Chestnut  trees,  grape-vines,  the  apple, 
pear,  plum,  cherry,  and  walnut,  also  came  into 
England  with  the  invading  Roman  hosts. 

It  may  be  true  that  some  of  these  fruits  are  to 
be  found  wild  in  British  woods.  But  the  harsh 
crab-apple  and  the  sour  wild  cherry  are  not  to  be 
confused  with  their  cultivated  descendants,  fit  for 


MORE  ABOUT  FRUIT.  1 75 

a  monarch's  dessert.  The  Imperial  governors  had 
handsome  villas,  surrounded  with  gardens  and 
orchards  in  which  the  finest  varieties  of  eatable 
fruits  were  grown. 

The  Romans  abandoned  Britain  when  their 
empire  was  hastening  to  its  fall ;  and,  after  their 
departure,  fruit-culture  was  neglected.  The  peo- 
ple of  the  island  were  not  far  enough  advanced  in 
civilization  to  take  up  the  scientific  methods  of 
their  late  masters.  With  the  advent  of  the  Nor- 
mans, that  other  great  people  to  whom  England 
owes  so  much,  farming  and  gardening  began  to 
flourish  anew.  To-day,  fruit-growing  is  a  branch 
of  science.  There  is  probably  no  other  country 
on  the  globe  that  appreciates  so  well  as  our  own 
the  value  of  scientific  culture  of  fruit. 

The  history  of  fruit-importation  into  the  United 
States  forms  the  most  readable  chapter  in  the 
annals  of  our  commerce.  The  cost  of  the  fruit 
brought  into  our  ports  every  year  is  $90,000,000. 
The  West  Indies  receive  a  large  share  of  this  sum. 
Jamaica  alone  sells  us  annually  over  6,000,000 
coco-nuts  and  45,000,000  oranges.  Yet  our  own 
fruit-harvest  far  exceeds  in  value  that  of  any  other 
country.  How  vast  the  amount  of  labor  in  diverse 
industries  is  implied  in  our  enormous  expenditure 
of  money  for  fruit !  What  lands  are  searched  to 
gratify  American  tastes  !     No  mean  position,  then, 


176  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

in  the  world's  wealth  is  held  by  flowers,  since  in 
flowers  all  fruits  begin. 

Fruit  is  a  nutrient  as  well  as  a  flavorer.  Many 
of  the  Pacific  islanders  live  on  fruit  the  year  round. 
Trees  are  their  markets.  Coco-nuts,  bananas, 
plantains  —  these  fruits  are  daily  used  to  support 
life.  The  date-palm  is  the  baker-shop  of  the 
wandering  Bedouin.  Thousands  of  men,  women, 
and  children  would  die  this  year,  if  the  fig  crop 
should  be  suddenly  destroyed. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  our  luscious 
fruits  represent  centuries  of  thought  and  care. 
Where  Nature  stops  in  fruit-growing,  the  work  of 
science  begins.  Man's  constant  solicitude  also  is 
needed  to  keep  our  fruits  up  to  the  standard  of 
excellence  already  reached. 

If  our  cultivated  strawberries  were  deprived  of 
human  attention,  they  would  soon  become  as  small 
and  sour  as  wild  ones.  Our  finest  grapes  would 
revert  to  the  wild  variety,  and  our  delicious  plums 
would  become  hard  and  bitter,  if  man's  care  of 
them  ceased.  Neglect  would  occasion  the  loss  of 
all  our  garden  fruits. 

They  are  products  of  the  human  intellect  as 
truly  as  clocks  or  maps.  It  is,  therefore,  the  fore- 
thought of  bygone  generations  of  fruit-culturists 
that  renders  it  possible  for  a  schoolboy  of  to-day 
to  obtain  fruit  that  even  kings  could  not  purchase 


A   PERSIAN  PRESENT.  177 

Lesson  LI. 
A  Persian  Present. 

Our  most  valuable  fruit  is  the  apple.  It  is  of 
more  use,  remains  longer  in  season,  and  can  be 
employed  in  a  greater  variety  of  ways,  than  any 
other  orchard  product.  Newly  gathered  from  the 
tree,  apples  are  the  most  refreshing  of  all  the 
common  fruits  of  temperate  climes.  For  cooking 
purposes,  the  apple  cannot  be  excelled. 

No  one  ever  tires  of  this  delightful  fruit.  It 
holds  in  orchard  produce  the  position  that  wheat 
holds  in  grain  crops.  The  apple  contains  con- 
siderable nutriment.  Indeed,  the  one  daily  meal 
of  that  stern,  vigorous,  moral  people,  the  early 
Romans,  consisted  of  bread,  apples,  and  eggs. 
We  are  never  too  old  to  enjoy  eating  apples,  and 
cur  young  folks  like  the  fruit  so  well  that  it 
would  seem  to  have  been  created  especially  for 
them. 

There  is  a  period  in  the  life  of  children  when 
they  are  hungry  all  the  time.  Eat  they  must  and 
will,  flying  to  harmful  candy  and  other  confections 
unless  supplied  with  what  is  really  wholesome. 
Fruit,  ripe  and  of  a  proper  kind,  is  what  boys  and 
girls  need,  and  no  kind  is  better  than  the  apple. 


i;8 


FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 


The  apple-tree  is  very  hardy  ;  it  will  thrive  wher- 
ever the  oak  will  flourish.  Under  favoring  con- 
ditions, an  apple-tree  will  live  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years.     At  the  great  Apple  Congress,  held  in 


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L_  •       "***   .*^S 

5BP^     S^^^»^;;:' 

Chiswick,  England,  in  1883,  twelve  of  the  best 
apples  exhibited  came  from  trees  of  which  every 
one  was  a  full  century  old. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  apple-tree  belongs 
to  the  Rose  order  of  plants.  You  have  had  in 
your  hand  an  apple-blossom,  and  you  noticed  that 


A    PERSIAN  PRESENT.  179 

it  was  made  up  of  five  petals,  delicately  tinted 
with  pale  carmine.  How  lovely  a  sight  is  an 
apple-tree  in  full  bloom  !  A  blossoming  cherry- 
tree  seems  to  be  a  mass  of  living  snow,  but  an 
apple-tree  in  blossom  enchants  the  vision  with  a 
glow  of  roseate  color. 

In  structure,  the  apple  is  one  of  the  most  sin- 
gular productions  of  nature.  Usually  a  fruit 
consists  of  the  matured  ovary  only.  But  in  the 
apple  the  matured  ovary  is  the  smallest  portion 
of  the  fruit  !  Cut  an  apple  through  in  a  horizon- 
tal plane,  and  you  will  see  the  true  fruit.  It  is 
always  indicated  by  the  green  fibres.  Note  that 
the  five  cells  of  the  core  contain  two  brown  seeds 
apiece,  so  that  every  apple  is  capable  of  producing 
ten  apple-trees. 

According  to  the  best  authorities,  the  apple  is 
indigenous  to  Persia.  But  we  know  that  it  was 
cultivated  in  Europe  before  men  wrote  history, 
because  apple  seeds  have  been  found  in  the  re- 
mains of  Swiss  lake-dwellings.  These  were  huts, 
built  by  savages,  thousands  of  years  ago,  on  piles 
driven  in  the  beds  of  shallow  lakes  in  Switzerland. 
When  we  speak  of  the  native  country  of  a  plant 
or  tree,  we  mean  the  region  in  which  the  plant  or 
tree  was  first  discovered.  Its  fruit  would  be  in 
its  original,  crude  condition  then. 

Orchard  apples  are  not  spontaneous  anywhere. 


180  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

All  have  come,  in  the  course  of  ages,  from  some 
simple  form,  like  the  wild  crab-apple.  At  what 
period  the  sour  crab  sent  out  its  first  sport,  and 
what  led  some  prehistoric  fruit-grower  to  foster 
it,  are  questions  that  we  shall  never  be  able  to 
answer.  It  is  quite  possible  also  that  Nature  may 
have  favored  the  propagation  of  the  early  sports. 
Good  apples  might  have  been  preserved  in  ancient 
times  by  accident.  Bees  carried  pollen  from 
flower  to  flower,  thus  producing  new  floral  species, 
long  before  men  observed  the  bees  engaged  in 
that  wonderful  work. 

During  the  last  three  centuries,  the  apple-tree 
has  been  carried  to  all  quarters  of  the  world  where 
it  will  thrive.  Hot  climates  are  unfavorable  to  it. 
The  tree  grows  admirably  well  in  the  South  Tem- 
perate Zone.  In  New  Zealand  and  Australia, 
apple-trees  yield  abundantly,  year  after  year,  their 
fruit  being  gathered  in  those  countries  in  our 
spring  months. 

The  apple  flourishes  in  the  park-like  prairies  of 
Chili ;  it  has  reached  Patagonia  even  ;  and  we  are 
all  aware  of  the  great  success  with  which  it  has 
been  cultivated  in  our  own  country.  The  apple- 
orchards  of  New  York  surpass  those  of  any  other 
part  of  the  globe.  Nova  Scotia  is  well  adapted  to 
apple  raising. 

An  apple-tree,  set  in  the  right  soil,  will  be  in  its 


G UESTS  FROM  ASIA.  l8l 

prime  when  about  fifty  years  old.  It  will  keep 
growing  fifty  years  afterwards,  however.  Proba- 
bly the  largest  apple-tree  in  the  world  is  to  be 
seen  near  Cheshire,  Connecticut.  This  tree  is 
one  hundred  and  forty-five  years  old,  and,  a  foot 
from  the  ground,  girths  thirteen  feet,  not  includ- 
ing enlargements  common  to  the  bases  of  all  aged 
trees.  The  uppermost  limbs  of  this  remarkable 
tree  reach  to  the  height  of  sixty  feet,  and  the 
lateral  spread  of  the  limbs  is  one  hundred  feet.  In 
one  season,  five  of  the  principal  branches  yielded 
one  hundred  and  ten  bushels  of  sound,  ripe  fruit. 

How  many  different  kinds  of  apples  are  grown  ? 
At  least  1,550  are  cultivated  in  the  United  States. 
Nearly  every  year  we  send  to  Europe  about  1,000,- 
000  barrels  of  apples.  We  ourselves  consume 
probably  ten  times  that  enormous  amount.  And 
there  is  no  doubt  that  people  would  be  much  more 
healthy  if  they  ate  more  of  this  peerless  fruit. 


Lesson  LII. 
Guests  from  Asia. 


The  pear  is  a  brother  of  the  apple.  The  origi- 
nal birthplace  of  each  would  seem  to  be  the  same 
—  the  district  stretching  from  the  north  of  Persia 
westward  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea.     It  has  taken 


182  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

four  crossings  of  different  fruits  to  produce  any 
one  of  the  present  varieties  of  the  pear. 

The  cultivation  of  this  fruit  was  not  begun  so 
soon  as  the  culture  of  the  apple.  The  latter  fruit 
is  more  hardy,  its  uses  are  more  varied,  and  many 
kinds  of  it  can  be  kept  through  the  winter.  In 
these  respects,  the  apple  is  superior  to  the  pear. 

When  well  developed,  a  mature  pear-tree  is  one 
of  the  most  pleasing  of  natural  objects.  The 
general  figure  is  much  handsomer  than  that  of  the 
apple-tree,  and  the  pear-tree  attains  a  markedly 
higher  stature,  this  often  reaching  seventy  feet. 
The  leaves  resemble  apple  leaves,  but  have  longer 
stalks,  and  are  usually  quite  smooth  on  both 
surfaces.  The  petals  of  the  pear-flower  are  pure 
white.  Near  Yarmouth  in  England,  there  is  a 
great  pear-tree  that  produced,  in  one  season,  the 
incredible  number  of  28,607  fine>  sweet  pears. 
These  were  of  the  variety  called  "  Golden  Ball." 

A  curious  fact  respecting  pears  is  that,  while 
twin  apples — two  apples  united,  side  by  side  — 
are  very  common,  twin  pears  are  unknown.  Yet 
pears  often  present  odd  and  curious  forms  which 
show  to  the  botanist  that  the  origin  of  the  fruit  is 
the  same  as  that  of  the  apple.  In  each  fruit,  the 
end  of  the  flower-stalk  adheres  to  the  five  ovaries, 
and  gradually  fuses  with  them.  It  is  also  curious 
to    note   that    wild   pear-trees    are    covered    with 


GUESTS  FROM  ASIA.  1 83 

thorns,  while  the  cultivated  trees  are  free  from 
them. 

At  the  great  battle  of  Agincourt,  fought  between 
the  French  and  the  English,  in  the  year  141 5,  in 
France,  a  company  of  yeomen  from  Worcestershire 
had  on  their  banner  the  device  of  a  pear-tree  laden 
with  fruit.  This  circumstance  shows  that  pear- 
culture  must  have  been  established  in  England 
long  before  141 5.  The  cultivated  varieties  of  the 
pear  number  over  a  thousand.  Belgium  excels 
every  other  country  in  the  production  of  new  kinds 
of  pears.  But  the  island  of  Jersey  grows  the 
most  marvellous  pears  that  the  world  has  yet  seen. 
These  are  sold'in  London  at  the  fabulous  price  of 
fifteen  guineas  a  dozen  —  seventy-eight  dollars  for 
twelve  pears  ! 

But  to  get  these  monsters  of  the  fruit  kingdom, 
hundreds  of  other  pears  have  to  be  nipped  in  the 
bud.  The  trees  are  allowed  to  bear  only  a  few 
fruits  each,  and  the  branches  on  which  these  hang 
are  kept  as  low  down  as  possible.  '  Pears,  like 
apples,  come  to  perfection  in  a  dry,  rich  soil  only. 
If  the  land  is  clayey,  wet,  and  cold,  it  is  hopeless 
to  expect  fruit  of  the  first  quality.  If,  at  any  time 
when  pears  are  ripe,  you  want  to  pick  one  for  eat- 
ing, and  you  are  desirous  of  having  it  of  good  flavor, 
watch  the  movements  of  those  excellent  judges, 
the  wasps,  and  follow  their  lead  in  your  choice. 


1 84  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

A  near  relative  of  the  apple  and  the  pear  is  the 
quince.  It  is  a  garden  product  of  ancient  fame, 
as  might  be  supposed  —  the  fruit  is  so  attractive 
in  appearance  when  fully  ripe.  The  quince  is 
another  gift  from  that  land  of  romance,  Persia,  to 
the  lands  of  science  in  Europe  and  America. 
There  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  the  ancient 
Hebrews  were  acquainted  with  the  quince,  and  it 
was,  beyond  all  doubt,  a  favorite  with  the  Greeks 
and  the  Romans. 

The  tree  bearing  this  celebrated  fruit  grows  to 
the  height  of  fifteen  or  twenty  feet.  The  branches, 
always  numerous,  are  crooked  and  distorted  ;  the 
leaves  are  dusky  green  above  and  downy  on  the 
under  surface.  The  flowers  resemble,  in  shape, 
apple  blossoms,  but  are  larger  and  more  open,  and 
white  or  pale  pink  in  color.  The  aspect  of  the  tree 
when  in  full  bloom  is  very  pleasing.  A  horizontal 
section  of  the  quince  shows  a  core  of  five  large 
cells.  Each  one  contains  a  quantity  of  a  kind  of 
mucilage  enclosing  several  seeds.  Thus  the  core 
of  a  quince  can  be  told  immediately  from  an  apple 
core  or  a  pear  core,  no  cell  of  either  pear  or  apple 
ever  having  more  than  two  seeds. 

The  flavor  of  the  quince  is  somewhat  bitter, 
and  the  fruit  is  not  suitable  for  dessert.  Quinces 
grown  in  hot  countries  have  a  blander  taste  than 
those  produced  here.     But,  wherever  ripened,  this 


GUESTS  FROM  ASIA.  185 

fruit  has  a  certain  dainty  roughness  combined 
with  a  strong  but  delightful  aroma.  The  quince 
has  been  used  two  thousand  years  for  marmalade. 
To  make  this  conserve,  the  Romans  boiled  quinces 
with  honey. 

A  distant  ancestor  of  both  the  pear  and  the  apple 
is  the  pretty  little  fruit  called  the  crab-apple,  or 
the  Siberian  crab.  It  is  about  the  size  of  a  large 
cherry,  and  is  borne  on  a  stalk  quite  as  long  and 
slender  as  that  of  a  cherry,  but  grows  generally  in 
clusters  of  three  to  seven  fruits.  It  is  only  lately 
that  this  little  apple  has  become  a  recognized 
garden  fruit. 

In  flavor,  the  Siberian  crab  is  far  in  advance  of 
the  wild  apple,  being  sharp-tasted  perhaps,  but  yet 
palatable  and  inviting,  and,  when  preserved,  always 
a  welcome  visitor  to  the  table.  The  crab-apple 
tree  is  small-sized.  Its  leaves  resemble  plum 
leaves.  The  flowers  are  white,  and  come  out  in 
great  profusion  in  early  summer.  As  is  implied 
in  the  fruit's  full  name,  the  crab-apple's  native 
country  is  Siberia. 


1 86  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson    LIII. 
Stone  Fruits. 

The  most  remarkable  of  all  the  forty  classes 
into  which  fruits  in  general  are  divided  is  the 
stone-fruit  class,  of  which  the  plum  and  the  cherry 
are  examples.  These  fruits  present  the  utmost 
simplicity  of  structure.  A  stone-fruit  is  the  bota- 
nist's ideal.  Every  fruit,  when  perfect,  consists  of 
three  distinct  layers — an  outer  skin,  the  pulp, 
and  a  hard  substance.  In  the  great  majority  of 
fruits,  all  three  parts  are  not  fully  developed,  and 
all  there  is  to  represent  them  is  an  envelope  — 
such  an  envelope  as  we  find  in  the  shell  of  the 
nut,  in  the  pod  of  the  pea,  and  in  the  round  little 
bag  which  holds  the  juice  of  the  grape.  In  the 
stone-fruits  the  three  layers  are  found  complete. 

Again,  a  leaf  folded  lengthwise,  the  edges  unit- 
ing to  make  a  little  box  in  which  the  seeds  are 
contained,  is  the  ideally  simplest  form  of  a  fruit. 
Leaves  thus  changed  are  termed  "  carpels,"  and 
a  fruit  consisting  of  only  one  carpel,  as  the  plum, 
is  of  course  the  simplest  in  structure.  The  five 
seed-chambers  of  the  apple,  constituting  the  core, 
are  made  by  the  combining  of  five  carpels  ;  a  pod, 
like  that  of  the  bean,  is  fashioned  from  one  carpel. 


STONE  FRUITS.  1 87 

The  groove  on  a  stone-fruit  indicates  the  line  of 
junction  of  the  leaf's  edges. 

Altogether,  there  are  about  one  hundred  stone- 
fruits.  Their  flowers  are  white  or  roseate,  and 
have  five  free  petals.  The  kernels,  and  often  the 
leaves,  are  noted  for  containing  traces  of  that 
deadly  poison,  prussic  acid.  No  one  should  ever 
eat  a  peach  kernel. 

Many  persons  consider  the  plum  the  most  deli- 
cious of  all  fruits.  When  the  improvement  of  this 
fruit  from  the  wild  sloe  began,  it  is  impossible  to 
determine.  The  damson  variety  was  known  to 
the  ancient  Greeks,  and  came  to  them  from  the 
famous  Syrian  city  of  Damascus.  Modern  France 
developed  the  green-gage.  French  plums,  dried, 
are  imported  under  the  name  of  prunes.  They 
are  prepared  by  simply  drying  them  in  the  sun. 

California  prunes  are  driving  all  others  from  bur 
markets.  A  six-year  old  plum-tree  near  Visalia, 
California,  yielded,  in  1890,  fruit  enough  to  make 
eleven  boxes  of  .prunes,  each  box  containing  one 
hundred  pounds.  In  the  same  year,  the  product 
of  a  California  plum-orchard  of  only  one  acre 
brought  the  owner  #1,900.  The  prunes  are 
superior  in    flavor   to  the    French    ones. 

Still  another  present  from  Persia  is  that  fruit  so 
beloved  of  birds  and  school-children,  the  cherry. 
There    is   no    evidence   to   show    when    the    wild 


188  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

cherry  first  became  an  object  of  the  gardener's 
care.  Cherry-stones  have  been  found  in  the  lake- 
dwellings  of  Switzerland.  The  Romans  had  eight 
varieties  of  the  cherry.  That  it  was  first  brought 
to  Italy  from  Cerasus,  a  story  repeated  so  often,  is 
not  true.  The  Cerasus  cherry  was  merely  a  new 
kind,  though  it  has  given  its  name  to  the  whole 
class.  In  the  valley  of  the  Rhine,  when  the 
cherry  crop  is  ripe,  all  the  schools  close  for  a  fort- 
night, and  children  and  parents  set  to  work  to 
gather  in  this  luscious  harvest  of  the  trees. 

The  Emperor  Claudius,  moved  by  curiosity, 
once  sent  couriers  to  Persia  for  some  specimens  of 
a  strange  fruit,  reputed  to  grow  in  that  far-off  land. 
This  fruit  was  found  to  be  about  the  size  of  a 
small  apple,  and  had  a  downy  skin,  part  red  and 
part  yellow.  In  the  centre  was  a  large,  hard 
kernel.  Latin-speaking  nations  called  the  fruit 
malum  Persicum  —  that  is,  the  Persian  apple. 
After  a  time,  the  first  word,  malum,  was  dropped, 
the  proper  adjective  being  used  .as  the  name  of 
the  fruit.  By  slow  degrees,  the  word  Persicum 
was  altered  to  persica,  persca,  pesca,  pescha, 
pesche,  peche,  and  peach. 

The  original  home  of  the  peach  is  China. 
The  date  of  the  introduction  of  the  fruit,  as  an 
object  of  culture,  into  Western  Europe,  is  un- 
known.    At  an  early  period,  peach-orchards  were 


PRODUCTS   OF   THE    VINE.  1 89 

to  be  found  in  Southern  France.  Nowadays,  the 
United  States  produces  more  peaches  than  all  the 
rest  of  the  world.  The  French  claim,  however, 
that  their  peaches  surpass  ours  in  quality. 

The  two  small  States  of  Delaware  and  New 
Jersey  have  peach-orchards  covering  over  fifty 
thousand  acres,  and  containing,  at  the  lowest  esti- 
mate, five  million  trees.  Special  fast-freight  trains 
are  run,  in  the  peach-harvesting  season,  to  convey 
the  fruit  to  all  the  large  cities.  The  prodigious 
peach  yield  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  will  soon  be 
exceeded  by  the  rapidly  increasing  product  of  the 
peach-orchards  of  California.  In  that  great  fruit- 
growing State,  preserve  factories  are  already  can- 
ning peaches  of  a  quality  superior  to  the  best 
ones  grown  in  France. 


Lesson  LIV. 
Products  of  the  Vine. 


The  most  ancient  of  cultivated  fruits  is  the 
grape.  Its  history  is  lost  in  the  remotest  anti- 
quity. Ancient  Egyptian  monuments  contain  rep- 
resentations of  various  circumstances  connected 
with  the  culture  of  the  vine.  It  is  probable  that 
we  must  credit  Persia  with  the  original  production 


190  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

of  the  grape,  —  a  fruit  that  all  the  world  enjoys 
eating.  The  vine  can  live  to  a  great  age.  In  bulk 
it  is  sometimes  enormous.  In  1875  there  was  cut 
down  at  Montecito,  California,  a  vine  which  meas- 
ured around  the  trunk,  at  a  foot  from  the  ground, 
fifty-five  inches.  The  branches  covered  over  four 
thousand  square  yards.  The  yearly  produce  of 
grapes  varied  from  five  to  six  tons.  The  trunk  of 
this  vine,  which  was  the  largest  ever  known,  is  still 
to  be  seen  in  a  museum  in  San  Francisco. 

The  plan,  now  universal,  of  hastening  the  pro- 
duction of  grapes  by  means  of  artificial  heat,  dates 
from  1705.  The  first  experiment  was  made  in 
England  by  burning  wood-fires  at  the  back  of 
a  wall  having  grape-vines  trailed  on  the  front. 
Protecting  the  vines  with  glass  was  a  later  idea. 
Cold  countries  can  now,  by  using  this  forcing 
process,  raise  grapes  even  in  winter.  It  is  not 
generally  known,  but  yet  it  is  none  the  less  one  of 
the  curiosities  of  modern  commerce,  that  foggy 
England,  and  not  Italy  or  Spain,  supplies  Copen- 
hagen and  St.  Petersburg  with  grapes.  They  are 
grown  in  great  vineries  near  the  town  of  Goole. 
This  fact  contains  a  lesson  of  deep  significance  for 
energetic  American  boys. 

The  size  of  the  bunches  produced  in  English 
hot-houses  is  sometimes  extraordinary.  At  the 
last    International    Fruit    Exhibition,    there   was 


PRODUCTS   OF   THE    VINE. 


I9I 


shown  a  cluster  of  Hamburg  grapes,  the  weight 
of  which  was  thirteen  pounds  and  four  ounces. 
While  the  vine  needs  heat,  it  nevertheless  refuses 
to  grow  within  twenty  degrees  of  the  equator ; 
and  of  course  it  will  not  flourish  in  any  country 


where  the  summer  is  too  short  to  allow  the  grapes 
to  ripen. 

Wherever  the  fruit  can  be  dried  in  the  sun, 
certain  kinds  of  grapes  can  be  converted  into 
raisins.  The  process  is  exceedingly  ancient,  sev- 
eral references  to  raisins  being  made  in  the  his- 
torical books  of  the  Old  Testament.  There  are 
but  few  localities  in  which  raisins  can  be  cured 
successfully.     For  perfect  results,  the  grapes  must 


192  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

be  dried  in  the  open  air,  in  contact  with  a  warm 
soil,  and  in  an  atmosphere  free  from  dampness 
and  hot  with  sunshine. 

These  requisites  are  found  in  the  district  around 
Malaga,  Spain,  and  in  Southern  California.  The 
bunches  of  grapes  are  cut,  placed  in  shallow  trays, 
and  exposed  to  the  sun's  beams  for  about  a  fort- 
night. Near  the  town  of  Huasco,  in  Chili,  there 
is  a  little  valley  wherein  many  tons  of  first-grade 
raisins  are  annually  prepared.  These  Chilian 
raisins  have  seeds  so  small  as  to  be  hardly  notice- 
able. Excellent  raisins  also  are  those  exported 
from  Northern  Persia  and  Bokhara.  Sultana 
raisins  are  entirely  seedless.  They  come  from 
Smyrna.  There  seems  to  be  no  essential  differ- 
ence between  the  vine  which  yields  these  grapes 
and  the  ordinary  vine. 

The  special  character  of  seedlessness  may  have 
been  produced  by  exceptional  circumstances  of 
soil  and  climate,  leading  to  partly  abortive  flowers. 
The  Sultana  vines  are  planted  in  rows,  seven  feet 
apart,  and  are  so  trained  as  to  form  irregularly 
branching  bushes.  These  seldom  grow  higher 
than  three  feet.  The  bunches  are  dipped  into 
a  solution  of  potash  to  which  a  small  quantity  of 
oil  has  been  added.  They  are  then  dried  on  the 
ground  for  a  week.  After  drying,  the  berries  are 
stripped  from  the  stalks  and  picked  for  export. 


PRODUCTS  OF  THE    VINE.  193 

About  10,000  tons  of  raisins  are  annually  brought 
into  this  country. 

Another  variety  of  the  vine  furnishes  the  valu- 
able fruit  so  familiar,  in  its  dried  state,  under  the 
name  of  currants.  They  were  originally  called 
"  Corinth  grapes,"  and  the  word  "  currant  "  is  a  cor- 
ruption of  Corinth.  The  geographical  range  of 
their  successful  culture  is  quite  limited.  The 
native  country  of  the  currant,  Greece,  still  pro- 
duces the  largest  quantity  of  the  fruit,  though,  to- 
day, Corinth  exports  none.  The  currant-producing 
district  is  a  narrow  belt  of  land  near  the  sea. 

The  bunches  are  put  in  wooden  trays,  six  feet 
by  three,  and  just  deep  enough  to  hold  a  single 
layer.  When  the  grapes  are  dry,  the  stalks  are 
winnowed  out,  and  the  fruit  is  trodden  into  bar- 
rels for  shipment.  The  smallness  and  seedless- 
ness  of  this  variety  of  grape  must  have  originated 
in  some  local  conditions  which  led  to  the  failure 
of  perfect  seeds.  Even  now,  occasionally,  seeds 
are  found  in  individual  berries.  Currant  culture 
was  tried  in  Italy  a  few  years  ago,  and  was  a 
failure ;  because,  after  the  third  season,  all  the 
berries  came  as  well  charged  with  seeds  as  the 
larger  varieties  of  grapes.  Over  $6,000,000  worth 
of  raisins  and  currants  are  imported  yearly  into 
the  United  States.  Yet  the  raisin  pack  of  Cali- 
fornia for  1890  was  1,300,000  boxes. 


194  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  LV. 
Globes  without  Maps. 

Our  garden  currants  received  their  name  from 
their  resemblance  to  the  Corinth  grapes  described 
in  the  last  lesson.  Currants,  white,  black,  and  red, 
are  extremely  young  in  years,  compared  with  their 
illustrious  relative,  the  grape.  The  common  red 
currant  grows  wild  throughout  Central  and  North- 
ern Europe  and  Siberia,  and  is  met  with  in  North 
America  nearly  up  to  the  Arctic  Circle.  It  is 
needless  to  speak  of  this  fruit's  value  for  preserve 
and  jelly.  The  jelly  is  the  best  of  all  fruit-juice 
conserves.  Black-currant  jam  is  considered  supe- 
rior to  any  other. 

The  gooseberry  is  an  emigrant  from  the  Hima- 
laya Mountains.  It  is  not  a  sun-seeker ;  hence  in 
Southern  Europe  the  berries  are  small  and  tasteless. 
A  humid  climate  is  preferred  by  this  fruit,  and  it 
reaches  its  best  condition  in  England.  The  bushes 
grow  most  luxuriantly  when  trained  on  trellises. 
Like  the  apple  and  the  pear,  the  humble  goose- 
berry often  takes  a  fancy  to  send  out  a  sport.  Yet 
only  four  kinds,  the  red,  yellow,  white,  and  green, 
have  hitherto  proved  fit  for  the  table. 

Groisc-h<zxxy  is  an  old  form  of  the  fruit's  name, 


GLOBES    WITHOUT  MAPS.  1 95 

and  means  fuzzy  berry.  There  is  a  smooth  variety 
of  the  gooseberry  as  well  as  a  hairy  one.  This 
fruit  is  not  estimated  at  its  proper  value  here.  Its 
healthful  acid  juice  is  precisely  what  is  needed  to 
prevent  bilious  disorders  from  attacking  our  vast 
population  of  in-door  workers. 

The  great  success  of  gooseberry  culture  in  Eng- 
land has  led  to  the  institution  of  yearly  Gooseberry 
Shows.  The  prizes  given  are  not  for  refined  flavors 
nor  yet  for  plentiful  crops.  The  winner  of  the 
first  prize  is  the  man  who  exhibits  the  largest 
berry.  To  score  a  victory,  the  fruit  must  outweigh 
every  rival.  The  heaviest  berry  ever  shown 
weighed  thirty-seven  pennyweights.  What  a  mon- 
ster ! 

Some  species  of  cranberry  is  found  in  all  parts 
of  Northern  Europe,  America,  and  Asia.  This 
berry  flourishes  only  in  wet  lands.  It  is  the  small- 
est of  fruiting-plants,  and  perhaps  the  smallest  of 
flowering  shrubs ;  for  the  stems  and  branches, 
though  woody,  are  quite  fine.  When  ripe,  the 
berries  are  collected  by  means  of  oddly-shaped 
rakes.  So  important  has  cranberry-growing 
become,  that  the  growers  have  organized  a  National 
Cranberry  Association  in  order  to  promote  their 
business  interests.  The  cranberry  crop  of  1890 
was  unusually  large,  amounting  to  180,000  bushels, 
valued  at  $1,000,000. 


196  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

Of  all  the  material  gifts  which  India  has  made 
to  Europe,  none  is  more  highly  appreciated  or 
more  precious  than  the  orange.  It  is  the  most 
healthful  and  refreshing  of  tropical  fruits.  Pro- 
tected from  frost  and  cold  winds,  it  is  sure  to  yield 
bountifully.  A  good  orange-orchard  grows  gold  in 
globes  for  its  owner,  and  presents  one  of  the  most 
charming  of  nature's  sights. 

If  it  is  in  full  bloom,  its  atmosphere  is  charged 
with  fragrance.  When  the  fruit  is  ripe,  the  bright- 
colored  spheres  hang  "like  lamps  in  a  night  of 
green."  Though  flower  and  fruit  have,  each,  a 
climax  period  of  loveliness  and  plenty,  yet  both 
may  usually  be  found,  side  by  side,  at  all  seasons, 
and  in  all  stages  between  budding  and  maturity. 

The  orange  is  one  of  the  group  of  fruits  in  which 
we  find  also  the  lemon  and  the  lime.  The  great 
value  to  mankind  of  these  admirable  fruits  con- 
sists in  the  abundance  of  citric  acid  which  they 
contain. 

Vegetal  acids  are  invaluable  adjuncts  to  human 
diet.  Nearly  every  fruit  eaten  by  man  contains 
more  or  less  acid  of  some  sort.  Of  all  the  vegetal 
acids,  citric  acid  seems  to  be  the  most  beneficial. 
It  exists  in  various  fruits  and  vegetables,  but  it  is 
found  most  abundantly  in  the  lemon,  the  lime,  and 
the  orange.  This  acid  is  not  the  only  remedy  for 
scurvy  ;  but  long  experience  teaches  us  that  lemon 


GLOBES    WITHOUT  MAPS.  197 

and  lime  juice  are  the  cheapest  preventives  of  that 
disease. 

A  very  curious  fact,  not  yet  explained,  is  that 
the  acid,  chemically  prepared  from  the  juice,  is  not 
nearly  so  efficacious  as  the  juice  itself.  Let  us 
therefore  avoid  the  chemical  preparation,  eat 
oranges,  and  drink  lemonade. 

The  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  had  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  orange.  The  Arabs  must  be  credited 
with  its  introduction  into  Europe.  The  powerful 
caliphs,  who  extended  their  conquests  from  Asia 
west  to  the  Atlantic,  had  immense  orange  planta- 
tions in  southern  Spain.  The  Crusaders,  returning 
from  the  Holy  Land,  helped  to  spread  orange-cul- 
ture on  the  north   shore   of   the    Mediterranean. 

The  fruit  requires  at  least  twelve  months  in 
which  to  get  fully  ripe.  Spain,  Portugal,  Sicily, 
and  Greece  are  the  chief  orange-producing  coun- 
tries of  the  Old  World.  The  best  oranges  in  our 
markets  come  from  Florida.  An  orange-tree  in 
its  prime  may  yield  16,000  fruits  annually. 

Orange-culture  has  rapidly  extended  in  the 
United  States  since  the  close  of  the  Civil  War. 
The  fruit  found  a  congenial  home  in  Florida  ;  and 
thousands  of  orange-orchards  there  now  bring 
wealth  to  the  men  who  had  the  foresight  to  plant 
them.  California,  the  garden  State  of  the  Union, 
has  more  recently  become  the  favorite  planting- 


198  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

ground  of  the  orange-grower.  Its  superb  climate 
and  rich  soil  guarantee  success. 

The  West  Indies  harvest,  yearly,  thousands  of 
tons  of  oranges.  Trinidad  bids  fair  to  become  a 
centre  of  the  orange-trade.  Brazil  promises  to  be 
one  of  the  very  best  fields  for  the  cultivation  of 
this  fruit.  The  banks  of  the  Parana  are  covered 
with  forests  of  wild  orange  trees.  Every  river- 
steamer,  plying  between  Buenos  Ayres  and  the 
upper  towns  on  the  La  Plata,  carries,  in  the 
season,  a  huge  pile  of  the  fruit,  free  to  all  that 
choose  to  eat.  New  South  Wales  produces  yearly 
200,000,000  oranges  of  the  finest  quality. 

The  United  States  is,  at  present,  compelled  to 
resort  to  foreign  countries  for  the  larger  portion 
of  its  orange  supply.  We  import  annually  350,- 
000,000  oranges  from  Southern  Europe,  and  at  least 
half  that  number  from  the  West  India  Islands. 
Yet  the  highest-priced  specimens  of  the  fruit  are 
grown  within  the  limits  of  our  own  territory,  and 
Government  reports  show  that  the  richest  agricul- 
tural district  in  the  country  is  the  orange-growing 
section  of  California. 


HEALTH  PRESERVERS.  1 99 

Lesson  LVI. 
Health  Preservers. 

The  lemon,  brought  from  India  some  time  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  now  grows  throughout  the 
countries  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean,  and  in 
the  Azores,  the  Canaries,  and  most  tropical  lands 
of  the  New  World. 

The  lemon-tree  is  very  sensitive  to  cold,  and 
prefers  warm,  sheltered  ground,  provided  that  it  is 
plentifully  supplied  with  water.  Constant  irriga- 
tion, both  winter  and  summer,  is  indispensable  to 
the  tree.  Under  very  favorable  conditions  it  lives 
to  a  great  age,  and  attains  dimensions  truly  sur- 
prising. In  a  quarry  sixty  feet  deep,  near  Syra- 
cuse, Sicily,  there  is  growing  at  the  bottom  a  lemon- 
tree  as  large  as  a  hundred-year  oak. 

The  valuable  properties  of  the  lemon  are  well 
known.  The  juice,  the  rind,  the  oil,  all  subserve 
useful  purposes  in  connection  with  food,  medicine, 
and  perfumery.  The  name  comes  from  the  Arabic 
word  liniun. 

A  fruit  very  similar  to  the  lemon,  but  more 
intensely  acid,  is  the  lime.  In  this  country,  it  is 
seldom  seen  except  in  the  pickled  form.  It  is, 
however,  much  more  toothsome  preserved.     The 


2Q0  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

fruit  is  gathered  while  green,  in  order  that  the 
rind's  exquisite  aroma  may  not  be  lost,  is  boiled 
with  sugar  and  spice,  and  put  into  small  kegs  for 
export. 

Sometimes  the  pulp  is  removed,  and  the  fragrant 
rind  is  incrusted  with  sugar.  Brazil  furnishes 
most  of  this  fruit-confection.  It  is  the  most  deli- 
cious of  all  conserves. 

Most  of  the  bottled  lime-juice  sold  in  our  shops 
comes  from  the  West  Indies.  The  finest  lime-tree 
gardens  in  the  world  are  on  the  little  island  of 
Montserrat,  a  British  colony.  No  sight  more 
beautiful  can  be  imagined  than  these  lime-orchards, 
numbering  150,000  trees,  when  laden  with  their 
bright  fruit,  the  glow  and  verdure  being  un- 
equalled even  by  the  orange  groves  of  Southern 
Europe. 

The  lime-leaf  is  so  aromatic  that  it  is  used,  in 
the  West  Indies,  to  perfume  the  water  in  finger- 
glasses.  The  production  of  fruit  is  very  large. 
When  ripe,  the  best  limes  are  selected,  and  cut  into 
slices  by  machinery.  The  juice  is  then  extracted 
by  means  of  heavy  presses.  After  straining  it, 
casks  are  used  to  convey  it  to  England,  where  it  is 
bottled  for  export  to  other  countries. 

The  refuse  from  the  presses  and  the  inferior 
fruit  are,  by  other  treatment,  made  to  yield  citric 
acid,  which  is  as  useful  in  the  arts  as  the  juice  is 


HEALTH  PRESERVERS.  201 

in  medicine.  Crops  are  gathered,  at  intervals,  all 
the  year  round,  but  the  heaviest  harvest  occupies 
the  fall  months.  This  inestimable  fruit  can  be 
grown  in  this  country.  A  rich  reward  awaits  the 
owner  of  the  first  successful  lime-plantation  in  the 
United  States.  Perhaps  he  is  now  a  boy,  and  you 
know  his  name. 

The  pomegranate  is  no  stranger  in  the  fruit- 
marts  of  our  large  cities.  It  was  a  familiar  and 
valued  fruit  in  the  earliest  historic  times,  as  is 
shown  by  the  frequent  references  to  it  in  the  Old 
Testament.  The  flowers  of  the  pomegranate  are 
deep  crimson  in  color,  and  are  brilliant  beyond 
description.  In  the  time  of  the  patriarchs,  the 
young  Hebrew  ladies  employed  the  opening  buds 
as  ear-drops. 

The  fruit  has  a  large  number  of  seeds,  each  im- 
bedded in  a  little  transparent  bag  of  rose-colored 
pulp.  The  cells  containing  the  seeds  are  built 
together  in  a  manner  so  remarkable  that,  botani- 
cally  considered,  the  pomegranate  stands  alone. 
The  juice  of  the  sweet  variety  of  this  fruit  assuages 
thirst  in  the  most  delightful  manner.  Scarcely 
anything  is  more  agreeable  to  the  fever-stricken. 
Scented  with  rose-water,  and  cooled  with  snow 
from  the  mountains,  this  juice  forms  the  delicious 
sherbet  of  the  Levant.  The  fruit  is  a  native  of 
Persia,  but  became  known   in   Europe  at   a  very 


202  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

early  date,  and  now  flourishes  in  all  the  sub-tropical 
countries  of  both  hemispheres. 

That  old,  old  land  in  which  so  many  civilizations 
have  arisen  and  decayed,  the  country  known  to  us 
moderns  as  Hindostan,  or  India,  made  a  priceless 
present  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  tropics  in  sending 
the  banana  across  the  Arabian  Sea.  This  fruit 
is  the  daily  bread  of  many  thousands  of  people 
all  the  year  round.  It  supplies  them  also  with  a 
pleasant  drink,  with  a  medicine,  and  with  materials 
for  clothing.  It  is  the  produce  of  a  very  beautiful 
plant.  From  its  superb  leaves,  six  to  nine  feet 
long,  there  is  spun  fine,  strong  thread,  which  may 
be  woven  into  cloth  suitable  for  wear  in  hot 
climates. 

In  South  America,  in  Africa,  and  in  the  Pacific 
islands,  banana  leaves  are  employed  for  roofing 
the  huts  of  various  tribes.  Rope  is  made  from  the 
plant's  fibres.  The  top  of  the  stalk  is  boiled  and 
eaten.  No  other  plant  provides  man  spontaneously 
with  so  lavish  an  abundance  of  food.  The  great 
naturalist,  Humboldt,  calculated  that  a  given  space 
of  ground,  planted  with  bananas,  would  produce 
one  hundred  and  thirty-three  times  as  much  food- 
substance  as  the  same  area  sowed  with  wheat. 

A  banana  cluster  weighing  over  one  hundred 
pounds  is  not  an  unfrequent  sight  on  our  wharves, 
and  the  plant  bears  fruit  every  month  in  the  year ! 


HEALTH  PRESERVERS.  203 

Bananas  to  be  exported  are  taken  green  from  the 
tree.  Ripe  ones  would  rot  before  reaching  our 
markets.  Nine-tenths  of  the  bunches  are  green 
when  they  arrive  here. 

As  soon  as  possible  they  are  hung  up  in  large 
chambers  heated  by  gas,  the  temperature  being 
kept  at  700.  Heat  from  any  other  source  will 
shrivel  the  fruit,  or  ripen  it  too  quickly.  This 
mode  of  ripening  fruit  is  employed  in  winter  only. 
In  lute  spring,  the  fruit  is  allowed  to  ripen  naturally. 
In  the  hotter  months,  it  is  hung  up  in  cellars. 

Bananas  are  divided  by  dealers  into  four  grades, 
the  finest  quality  being  called  Golden  Veils.  In  a 
cargo  of  15,000  bunches,  there  will  be  only  from 
200  to  400  bunches  of  this  grade.  Next  to  the 
Golden  Veils  are  No.  i's,  then  come  Eight  Hands, 
and  the  cheapest  are  styled  No.  2's.  These  last 
bunches  are  the  ones  sold  by  fruit  peddlers.  Mil- 
lions of  dollars  are  invested  in  the  banana  trade. 


204  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  LVII. 
Gifts  from  Abroad. 

The  Pineapple.  —  The  native  home  of  the 
pineapple  is  Brazil.  In  the  steaming,  superheated 
valley  of  the  Amazon,  the  plant  finds  the  most 
favorable  conditions  for  its  growth.  The  requi- 
sites of  heat  and  moisture  are  furnished  also  by 
the  climate  of  the  Malaysian  Archipelago,  and  the 
pineapple  flourishes  as  vigorously  there  as  in 
tropical  America.  Indeed,  the  pineapples  of  Java 
and  Sumatra  are  reputed  to  be  the  best  in  the 
world. 

The  fruit  is  produced  in  enormous  quantities  in 
Salvador.  There,  pineapple  orchards,  sixty  acres 
in  area,  are  quite  common.  Each  acre  yields,  in 
good  seasons,  about  10,000  fruits.  In  the  Baha- 
mas, there  are  districts  where  as  many  as  1,200,- 
000  pineapple  plants  can  be  seen  at  a  glance. 
The  Azores  now  raise  immense  quantities  of  the 
fruit.  It  should  be  cultivated  in  our  own  country. 
Louisiana  affords  everything  essential  for  pine- 
apple culture  on  a  large  scale. 

The  Chestnut.  — A  thousand  years  ago  the 
colossal  chestnut-tree,  near  the  village  of  Tort- 
worth,   England,  was  described  as  the    oldest  in 


GIFTS  FROM  ABROAD.  205 

Britain.  Yet  it  still  puts  forth  leaves  in  spring, 
blossoms  in  due  season,  and  showers  down  in 
autumn  thousands  of  golden-brown  nuts  !  The 
tree  is  of  great  antiquity.  It  has  seen  kingdoms 
rise  and  fall.  It  saw  the  stately  march  of  the 
Roman  legions,  when  they  passed  southwards  to 
leave  the  land  forever  ;  it  witnessed  many  a  fierce 
conflict  between  the  Britons  and  their  Saxon 
foes ;  it  marked  the  Danes  come  and  go ;  it  has 
outlived  the  Norman  monarchy,  the  Puritan  Com- 
monwealth, and  the  dynasty  of  the  House  of 
Orange.  So  vigorous  is  the  green  old  age  of  this 
grand  tree,  that  it  may  yet  behold  Great  Britain 
a  republic. 

A  yard  above  the  ground  the  tree  measures  fifty 
feet  in  girth.  The  spread  of  the  branches  is  one 
hundred  and  seventy-two  feet.  The  produce  must 
have  been  enormous  when  the  tree  was  in  its 
prime.  In  the  eighteen  hundred  years  of  its 
existence,  how  many  boys  have  gathered  chest- 
nuts beneath  its   boughs  ! 

In  some  mountainous  districts  of  Europe,  where 
cereals  cannot  be  raised,  the  chestnut  takes  the 
place  of  grain.  The  chestnut-harvest  is  the  event 
of  the  year  on  the  slopes  of  the  Apennines  and 
Pyrenees.  For  three  or  four  weeks,  the  inhabit- 
ants of  every  mountain  village  turn  out,  in  a  body, 
to  gather  the  nuts.     When  all  the  trees  have  been 


206  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

stripped,  the  fruit  is  spread  on  frames  of  lattice- 
work, and  dried  by  keeping  a  fire  burning  under 
the  frames.  The  nuts  are  then  steamed  or  roasted, 
according  to  taste,  or  ground  into  a  kind  of  flour, 
from  which  bread  is  made.  This  bread  is  more 
valuable  than  might  be  supposed.  It  contains 
forty  per  cent   of  nutritive  material. 

The  Walnut.  —  Wealh-knut  —  that  is,  foreign 
nut  —  is  the  name  given,  by  the  people  of  England, 
to  the  walnut,  for  centuries  after  the  Saxon 
invasion,  which  began  about  the  middle  of  the 
fifth  century.  This  nut  is  a  native  of  North 
America.  Unlike  most  other  fruit-trees,  the  wal- 
nut has  the  merit  of  furnishing  valuable  wood  for 
the  furniture-maker's  use.  The  tree  lives  to  a 
great  age.  Near  Balaclava,  in  the  peninsula  of  the 
Crimea,  Russia,  there  is  a  flourishing  walnut-tree 
over  one  thousand  years  old.  The  shell  of  the 
nut  is  extremely  hard,  as  we  all  know,  but  the 
kernel  is  very  sweet.  Herein  the  walnut  resem- 
bles useful  knowledge.  It  is  hard  to  obtain  such 
knowledge ;  but  when  we  do  obtain  it,  its  value 
repays  our  labor  a  thousand-fold. 

The  Coconut.  —  No  other  fruit  brought  from 
a  foreign  country  is  destined  so  entirely  for  chil- 
dren as  the  coconut.  It  is  the  product  of  one  of 
the  trees  of  the  splendid  palm  order.  The  first 
great  botanist,  the  Swede,  Linnaeus,  styled  these 


GIFTS  FROM  ABROAD.  207 

trees  the  Princes  of  the  Vegetable  Kingdom. 
They  are  indeed  royal  in  appearance,  but  they 
differ  from  princes  in  being  useful  as  well  as 
ornamental. 

Instead  of  possessing  boughs,  twigs,  and  leaves, 
like  every  tree  familiar  to  us,  the  palm  is  a  living 
pillar,  slender,  round,  erect,  and  capable  of  attain- 
ing, in  one  species,  the  immense  height  of  one 
hundred  and  ninety  feet.  Not  a  single  sideways 
shoot  breaks  the  line  of  the  trunk  till  the  summit 
is  reached,  and  there  the  leaves  spring  out.  These 
radiate  in  all  directions,  and  constitute  a  gigantic 
evergreen  crown. 

The  leaves  of  the  coconut  palm  are  from  twelve 
to  twenty  feet  long,  and  are  feather-like  in  appear- 
ance. The  tree  grows  from  sixty  to  one  hundred 
feet  high.  Close  to  the  top  of  the  trunk,  and  pro- 
tected by  the  leaves,  hang  the  bunches  of  nuts. 
Ten  or  twelve  bunches  are  to  be  seen  at  once  on 
the  tree,  a  new  bunch  being  produced  every 
month.  Each  bunch  contains  from  eight  to 
twenty  nuts.  The  production  of  fruit  commences 
when  the  tree  is  about  eight  years  old,  and  con- 
tinues for  seventy  or  eighty  years. 

In  point  of  habitation,  the  coconut  palm  is 
essentially  a  tropical  plant.  Its  original  seat  of 
growth  appears  to  be  Malaysia.  Thence  the  fruit 
has  made  its  way  to  every  tropical  shore,  conveyed, 


208  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

doubtless,  in  great  measure  by  the  waves.  The 
7,000,000  coconuts  we-  import  every  year  come 
chiefly  from  the  West  Indies  and  Central 
America.  The  shores  of  Trinidad  are  fringed 
thickly  with  coco-palms.  The  south-eastern  part 
of  Ceylon  can  boast  of  a  grove  containing,  accord- 
ing to  careful  estimates,  over  11,000,000  of  coco- 
nut trees. 

The  kernel  of  the  coconut  is  quite  nutritious. 
The  milk,  so-called,  is  a  portion  of  the  natural 
albumen  of  the  nut,  not  solidified  into  kernel. 
This  milk,  as  we  get  it  here,  is  little  better  than 
a  mockery  of  the  delicious  crystalline  liquor  it  is 
in  the  tropics.  There,  it  is  called  coconut  water, 
and  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  refreshing  of 
beverages. 

The  Pacific  islander  finds  the  coconut  useful  in 
various  ways.  He. makes  baskets,  hats,  and  ham- 
mocks from  the  leaves.  He  weaves  the  husk 
fibers  into  cloth,  sails,  matting,  and  ropes.  The 
trunk  is  fashioned  into  canoes  and  house-pillars. 
The  shells  are  shaped  into  cups.  Paddles  and 
spears  are  made  from  the  midribs  of  the  leaves. 
Oil  from  the  kernels  affords  an  excellent  burning- 
fluid  for  lamps.  The  coco-palm  may,  indeed,  be 
considered  the  peculiar  glory  of  Polynesian  vege- 
tation. 

The    Date.  —  The    palm    of    Scripture,    fable, 


GIFTS  FROM  ABROAD.  20g 

poetry,  legend,  and  art,  is  also  that  storehouse  of 
food,  the  date-palm.  It  is  emphatically  a  desert 
tree.  Yet  it  never  flourishes  except  in  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood  of  water.  The  traveller  across 
the  sand-blown  Sahara  rejoices  at  the  sight  of  the 
date's  green  frondage,  visible  on  the  far  horizon  : 
near  the  tree  he  knows  there  must  be  "  wells  of 
water"  from  which  he  can  slake   his  thirst. 

Dates  grow  in  clusters,  each  cluster  hanging 
from  the  base  of  a  leaf-stalk,  like  a  coconut  bunch. 
When  almost  ripe,  the  clusters  are  cut  off,  and 
placed  in  the  sun  to  dry.  Fifty  full-grown  trees 
yield  about  a  ton  of  good  fruit.  Most  of  the  dates 
we  import  come  from  North  Africa  and  the 
Persian    Gulf. 

The  Watermelon.  —  How  strange  it  is  to 
learn  that  the  country  of  the  date,  the  desert 
region  of  the  Eastern  Hemisphere,  is  the  original 
habitat  of  our  own  renowned  watermelon !  Yet 
this  was  .the  melon  of  the  ancient  Egyptians; 
which  was  so  seriously  missed  by  the  wanderers 
in  the  wilderness.  The  watermelon  is  extensively 
cultivated  in  the  United  States.  Large  districts 
in  the  South  are  devoted  solely  to  the  culture  of 
this  fruit.  In  the  season,  steamers  loaded  with 
watermelons  are  despatched  daily  from  Southern 
to  Northern  ports.  Thousands  of  tons  of  the  fruit 
are  consumed  annually. 


210  FOODS   AND   BEVERAGES. 

The  canteloupe  is  of  the  same  family  as  the 
watermelon,  but  is  considered  to  be  even  more 
delicious.  The  canteloupe  is  a  native  of  the  East 
Indies,  and  was  not  brought  to  England  till  1570. 
It  is  not  so  hardy  as  the  watermelon,  and  cannot 
bear  transportation  so  well.  We  are  indebted  to 
India  also  for  that  prolific  garden  gourd,  the 
cucumber.  It,  too,  belongs  to  the  family  of  plants 
which  embraces  the  watermelon  and  the  cante- 
loupe—  the  cucurbits.  These  plants,  it  should  be 
remembered,  are  not  vegetables  —  they  flower, 
and  therefore   their  produce    is  fruit. 


Lesson  LVIII. 
The  Rubi. 


The  title  of  this  lesson  is  the  botanical  term  for 
some  very  curious  forms  of  fruit  which  are  made 
up  of  little  separate  and  independent  fruits,  — 
pericarps.  The  raspberry,  the  blackberry,  and  the 
dewberry  are  examples.  There  are  sixty-nine 
species  of  rubi  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  alone, 
and  numerous  others  are  found  in  Europe  and 
Asia.  In  point  of  universal  favor,  the  raspberry 
is   first  in  this  botanical  genus. 

In  the  wild  state,  the  raspberry  occurs  through- 


THE   /COB/.  211 

out  Europe  from  Norway  to  Greece,  from  Ireland 
to  Russia.  It  is  found  in  Siberia,  in  Northern 
Hindostan,  in  North  Africa,  in  Australia  and 
Polynesia.  The  mode  of  development  of  the 
stems  is  somewhat  peculiar.  The  root  is  per- 
ennial, but  the  stems  are  biennial  —  that  is,  a  new 
set  of  young  stems  shoot  up  every  year.  These 
flower  and  bear  fruit  in  the  following  year.  When 
their  work  is  finished,  they  die  away  and  give 
place  to  their  successors. 

No  other  wild  fruit  has  given  the  gardeners  so 
little  trouble  as  the  raspberry,  because  no  other 
so  nearly  approaches,  in  the  wild  state,  the  con- 
dition desired  for  the  table.  All  our  fine  varieties 
have  been  derived  from  the  wild  raspberry  of  the 
woods. 

Of  entirely  wild  eatable  fruits,  the  most  inter- 
esting is  the  blackberry.  It  holds  the  unique 
position  of  being  the  only  fine  fruit  guarded  with 
thorns.  It  occurs  in  woods,  thickets,  in  tangled 
wildernesses  and  waste  fields,  all  over  North 
America,  Europe,  and  Northern  Asia.  The  plant 
is  singularly  hardy,  and  seems  capable  of  adapting 
itself  to  any  climate.  The  blackberry  is  propa- 
gated not  only  by  seed,  but  also  by  burying  its 
shoots  in  soft  earth.  These  form  knobs  which, 
during  the  winter  months,  throw  out  roots  in  all 
directions,  and  in  spring  develop  strong  sprouts, 


212  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

capable  of  independent  existence.  Hence  a  black- 
berry sport  can  be  readily  perpetuated. 

In  New  Jersey,  blackberries  have,  for  many 
years,  been  grown  for  market  on  a  very  extensive 
scale.  An  acre  of  ground  has  yielded  one  hundred 
and  fifty  bushels  of  the  fruit.  The  crop  of  a 
small  township,  near  Delaware  Bay,  amounted  to 
nearly  21,000  bushels  in  one  season.  What  would 
be,  in  your  town,  the  market  value  jof  that  harvest 
of  blackberries  ? 

If  we  should  all  vote  to  decide  which  one  of  the 
fruits,  ripening  here  without  artificial  heat,  is  the 
best  in  respect  of  flavor,  beauty,  and  healthful 
service  to  the  body,  the  strawberry  would,  doubt- 
less, be  honored  with  the  most  X's.  It  has  the 
rare  method  of  consisting  almost  wholly  of  mate- 
rial that  can  be  digested  without  fermenting. 
The  plant  requires  but  little  shelter,  and  will 
grow  even  in  bleak  places.  In  one  variety  or 
another,  it  is  distributed  over  all  the  habitable 
world. 

Botanically  regarded,  the  fruit  is  one  of  the 
most  singular  known.  It  corresponds  to  the 
white  cone  of  the  raspberry,  being  really  the  re- 
ceptacle vastly  enlarged.  The  seed-like  specks  on 
the  surface  are  genuine  pericarps  ;  every  one  of 
them  contains  a  seed,  and  was  originally  a  distinct 
ovary.     Our  Southern   States  raise  thousands  of 


THE   RUB  I.  213 

bushels  of  early  strawberries  for  the  Northern 
markets.  Later  fruit  is  grown  in  States  north  of 
the  fortieth  parallel  ;  and,  when  their  yield  is 
exhausted,  the  Maritime  Provinces  of  Canada  are 
beginning  to  pick  their  strawberry  crop.  The 
largest  strawberry  garden  in  the  world  is  in  the 
Cray  Valley,  county  of  Kent,  England,  and  con- 
tains five  hundred  acres,  from  which  are  annually 
gathered  about  a  thousand  tons  of  strawberries. 

The  fig  is  one  of  the  fruits  with  which  man  has 
been  long  acquainted.  It  is  mentioned  in  the 
very  oldest  literature  that  the  world  possesses. 
Requiring  no  cultivation,  the  fig  would  be  used  as 
a  food,  before  any  nutrient  obtained  by  tilling  the 
soil.  In  the  Old  Testament,  the  ownership  of 
a  fig-tree  is  referred  to  as  an  indication  of  joyful 
opulence  ;  the  appearance  of  the  young  fruit  is  in 
"  the  time  of  the  singing  of  birds." 

At  the  present  day,  the  fig  grows  wild  from 
Persia  to  Spain.  But  it  has  for  ages  been  an 
object  of  garden-culture.  Florida  fig-trees  yield 
from  twenty  to  thirty  bushels  of  fruit  yearly.  In 
Alabama,  the  fig-tree  is  considered  extremely  pro- 
lific. It  has  the  same  reputation  in  Texas  and 
California.  Fig  plantations  are  becoming  com- 
mon in  Australia. 

The  fruit  also  still  thrives  vigorously  in  its 
ancient   haunts.      North    Africa   is,   even    to-day, 


214  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

noted  for  such  figs  as  those  praised  by  the  elder 
Cato,  when  he  threw  a  bunch  of  them  on  the 
floor  of  the  Roman  Senate-chamber,  saying,  "  The 
country  where  these  splendid  fruits  grew  is  only 
three  days'  voyage  from  Rome."  The  freshness 
of  the  figs  suggested  the  nearness  of  the  rival 
state  from  which  they  came  :  Carthage  —  Rome's 
most  powerful  enemy. 

The  fig  flourishes  best  on  the  seashore  ;  hence, 
perhaps,  the  extraordinary  abundance  of  figs  in 
Asia  Minor  and  in  the  islands  of  the  Greek 
Archipelago. 

Smyrna  is  the  centre  of  the  fig  trade.  Eleme 
figs  are  the  finest.  Spain  and  Portugal  export 
large  quantities  of  fig-cake.  This  cake  is  made  of 
the  very  poorest  fruit,  pressed  into  small  cheeses. 
The  dried  fig  of  our  grocery  stores  does  not  give 
even  a  suggestion  of  the  delicious  taste  of  the 
ripe  fruit,  taken  fresh  from  the  tree.  The  people 
of  the  United  States  spend  every  year  about 
$2,000,000  for  figs. 


SUGAR.  21 5 

Lesson  LIX. 
Sugar. 

Most  of  the  sugar  used  in  this  country  is 
extracted  from  the  sugar-cane.  Sugar  is  also 
contained  in  the  juices  of  various  other  plants  ; 
but  its  manufacture  is  practically  limited  to  the 
cane  mentioned,  to  the  beet,  to  starch,  sorghum, 
the  sugar-maple,  and  the  date-palm. 

Men  learned  in  the  science  of  language  have 
traced  the  word  sugar  back  to  the  oldest  of  written 
tongues,  the  Sanscrit  of  ancient  India.  The  cane 
was  cultivated  in  Hindostan  in  very  remote  times. 
Persia  made  it  known  to  Europe,  and  our  name 
for  the  sweet  crystals  comes  from  the  Persian 
term  shakar.  Among  the  old  Greeks  and  Romans, 
sugar  was  generally  called  "  India  salt."  They 
obtained  it  only  at  great  cost  from  the  East 
Indies,  and  employed  it  as  a  medicine.  The 
Arabs,  who  conquered  Spain,  carried  the  sugar- 
cane into  that  country  in  714.  Thence  the  sugar 
industry  spread  to  the  Madeira  Islands.  It  is 
asserted  by  some  historians  that  the  Spaniards 
brought  the  sugar-cane  to  the  West  Indies,  in  1 500, 
but  many  botanists  think  that  several  kinds  of  the 
cane  are  indigenous  to  the  Western  Hemisphere. 


216 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


From  the  extensive  growth  of  the  cane  in  the 
American  tropics,  there  ensued  large  importations 
of  raw  sugar  into  Europe;  and  the  introduction 
of  tea  and  coffee,  about  the  same  time,  created 
a  popular  demand  for  the  sweet  substance,  though 


-^fgsiti-  tp                              \\  v^  w 

A    T'^EmM 

it  had  previously  been  considered  a  medicine 
rather  than  a  nutrient.  Sugar-refining  was  learned 
from  the  Arabs  by  the  Venetians.  Refineries 
were  started  in  England  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
About  twelve  distinct  varieties  of  the  sugar- 
cane  are    cultivated    by   planters.      The   Chinese 


SUGAR.  217 

cane  of  the  Malacca  Peninsula  attains  a  height  of 
fourteen  feet,  and  a  single  stalk  weighing  over 
twenty-six  pounds  is  not  uncommon.  The  plant 
is  propagated  by  cuttings  placed  in  furrows. 
Sugar-canes,  when  ripe,  are  chopped  down  with 
hatchets,  the  tops  discarded,  as  their  juice  would 
injure  the  sugar,  and  all  leaves  are  stripped  off. 
Tied  in  bundles,  the  canes  are  then  conveyed  to 
the  sugar-mill.  If  a  frost  should  set  in  before  the 
cane-harvest,  the  cane-juice  will  not  turn  into 
sugar,  unless  the  stalks  are  cut  and  manufactured 
before  a  thaw  occurs. 

The  old  way  of  extracting  the  juice  was  to 
crush  the  cane  between  heavy  rollers  of  iron. 
This  method  is  still  in  use  in  sugar-producing 
countries  in  which  it  is  not  convenient  or  profit- 
able to  introduce  modern  machinery.  It  has  been 
sought  to  make  the  extraction  of  the  juice  easier 
by  saturating  the  cane  with  steam  before  the 
crushing  operation  in  the  rolling-mill.  Slicing 
the  canes  lengthwise  also  raises  the  return  of 
juice.  In  Mauritius,  where  large  quantities  of 
sugar  are  made,  the  cane  is  rasped  into  thin  shreds 
by  means  of  saw-like  cutters. 

The  latest  and  most  satisfactory  mode  of  obtain- 
ing the  sugar  is  the  "  diffusion "  process.  In 
cane-juice,  there  are  two  substances  to  be  sepa- 
rated,   one    from   the   other.     One  substance    in- 


218  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

eludes  the  sugar,  and  will  crystallize  ;  the  other 
is  gummy  in  character,  and  cannot  form  crystals. 
The  dissolved  crystals  (in  the  cane-juice)  will  pass 
through  the  cane,  if  it  be  cut  in  thin  slices,  and 
placed  in  water.  But  only  half  the  sugar  will  be 
drawn  out  in  the  first  soaking.  The  pieces  of 
cane  are  taken  out,  after  half  their  sugar  has  been 
extracted,  and  are  put  into  fresh  water,  which 
draws  out  half  the  sugar  remaining.  This  process 
is  repeated  till  the  amount  of  sugar  found  in  the 
water  is  too  small  to  repay  extracting. 

The  cane-cutters  are  knives,  fastened  in  a  large 
iron  disk,  which  rotates  close  to  a  slicing  blade. 
A  diffusion  tank  will  hold  about  four  thousand 
pounds  of  sliced  cane  and  three  thousand  pounds 
of  water.  Steam  is  forced  into  the  chips  till  it 
begins  to  escape  at  the  top.  The  steam  is  then 
shut  off,  and  water  is  run  into  the  tank.  Inside 
two  hours,  the  sugar  is  extracted  from  the  chips. 

The  juice  is  then  clarified  with  lime,  and  goes 
to  the  kettles,  the  scum  having  been  removed. 
Another  clarifying  process,  much  used  in  Louisi- 
ana, is  to  pass  sulphurous  acid  gas  into  the  juice, 
and  then  to  add  lime.  Filtration  through  charcoal 
packed  in  round  iron  boxes  is  the  next  step.  The 
object  is  to  remove  the  vegetable  coloring  matter 
and  other  impurities. 

The  juice  must  be  evaporated  in  order  to  obtain 


SUGAR.  219 

the  sugar.  Formerly,  the  clarified  juice  was 
poured  into  pans,  and  the  water  was  boiled  away. 
This  method  was  found  to  be  wasteful.  To-day, 
the  larger  sugar-mills  use  flat  boilers,  from  which 
the  air  has  been  pumped  out  before  filling  them 
with  cane-juice.  These  boilers  are  heated  by 
steam.  When  the  syrup  begins  to  turn  into 
grains,  it  is  drawn  off,  and  allowed  to  cool. 
Crystallizing  is  the  final  stage  of  sugar-making 
at  the  mill.  Refining  is  usually  done  in  large 
cities. 

A  portion  of  the  syrup  will  not  form  crystals. 
This  liquid  is  the  molasses  of  commerce.  Curing 
the  sugar  is  extracting  the  molasses  from  it.  The 
old  method  was  simple  drainage.  The  dark  mass 
of  dirty-looking  sugar  was  placed  in  casks  with 
perforated  bottoms,  the  holes  being  loosely  cov- 
ered with  rushes  to  form  a  rough  strainer.  In 
these  crude  filters,  draining  went  on  slowly  and 
imperfectly,  some  of  the  molasses  escaping  into 
a  tank  below,  but  much  still  remaining  in  the 
sugar. 

The  separation  of  the  molasses  was  so  incom- 
plete that  great  leakage  occurred  while  the  sugar 
was  on  its  way  to  distant  markets.  Sugar  cured 
in  this  way  is  known  as  muscovado,  or  brown 
sugar.  Nowadays,  the  molasses  is  separated  by 
centrifugal  machines,  somewhat  like  those  used  in 


220  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

woollen  factories  for  drying  cloth.  A  cylinder- 
shaped  basket,  its  sides  made  of  wire,  is  sur- 
rounded by  an  iron  casing.  The  basket,  filled 
with  the  uncured  sugar,  is  revolved  on  a  shaft  at 
a  high  speed  ;  and  the  molasses,  flying  out  into 
the  casing,  is  conducted  by  a  spout  into  a  receiver. 


Lesson  LX. 
The  Emperor's  Prize. 


About  1747,  Margraf,  a  German  scientist, 
proved  that  the  common  beet  contains  sugar  like 
that  obtained  from  the  sugar-cane.  No  steps  to 
utilize  this  discovery  were  taken  till  1801,  when 
the  first  beet-sugar  factory  was  established  in 
south-eastern  Germany.  France  also  became  in- 
terested about  that  time  in  the  beet-sugar  industry. 
The  war  existing  between  England  and  France 
deprived  the  French  people  of  their  supply  of 
sugar  from  the  West  Indies,  most  of  those  islands 
being  then  under  the  control  of  the  English. 

Napoleon  I.,  Emperor  of  France,  offered  a 
reward  of  1,000,000  francs  (about  $200,000)  for 
a  practical  process  of  extracting  sugar  from  beets. 
The  rich  prize,  and  the  richer  reward  of  the  home 
trade,  stimulated  invention,  and  several  successful 


THE  EMPEROR'S  PRIZE. 


221 


methods  of  manufacturing  beet-sugar  were  brought 
forward.  There  was  a  disagreeable  flavor  of 
molasses  left  in  the  sugar,  however,  and  for  a 
long  time,  all  attempts  to  remove  that  flavor 
failed.     It  was  believed  by  most  people  that  beet- 


sugar  could  never  be  made  that  would  be  equal  to 


But  science  is  ever  advancing.  Progress  is  the 
watchword  of  this  wonder-working  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  fault-finders,  with  their  eyes  turned 
towards  the  past,  were  proved  to  be  false  prophets. 
Chemistry  finally  overcame  all  the  difficulties,  and 


222  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

sugar  of  the  highest  grade  is  now  daily  produced 
by  hundreds  of  tons  from  beets.  To  the  chemists 
then,  full  credit  for  their  invaluable  labors  should 
be  given.  Their  science  brought  a  new  and  ex- 
tremely important  industry  into  existence. 

Were  the  sugar-cane  our  sole  source  of  sugar 
now,  this  most  agreeable  nutrient  could  be  pur- 
chased only  by  the  rich.  Less  sugar  would  be 
sold,  and  fewer  salesmen  would  be  employed. 
The  thousands  of  workers  in  the  beet-sugar  fac- 
tories would  be  forced  to  join  the  ranks  of  the 
idlers.  Farmers,  too,  would  suffer.  In  1889, 
Europe  manufactured  1,800,000  tons  of  beet-sugar. 
As  it  requires  one  hundred  pounds  of  beets  to 
make  nine  pounds  of  sugar,  20,000,000  tons  of 
beets  must  have  been  bought  by  the  sugar- 
factories. 

The  value  of  the  beets  is  based  on  the  density  of 
their  juice,  not  on  their  weight.  The  more  sugar 
in  a  beet,  the  denser  will  be  its  juice.  The  sugar 
is  extracted  by  methods  similar  to  those  used  in 
obtaining  cane-sugar.  The  beet  roots  are  cleaned, 
trimmed  of  rootlets  and  leaves,  washed,  and  macer- 
ated by  machinery.  Presses  are  then  employed 
to  extract  the  juice  from  the  pulp.  Filtration 
follows  next.  This  is  effected  by  passing  carbonic 
acid  gas  into  juice  previously  limed,  followed  by 
boiling  and  skimming.     The  juice  is  then  pumped 


THE   EMPEROR'S  PRIZE.  223 

into  an  iron  cistern,  is  heated  to  the  boiling-point, 
and  run  through  filters  packed  with  bone-charcoal. 

The  next  operation  is  the  removal  of  the  excess 
of  water,  in  order  that  the  liquid  left  may  become 
dense  enough  to  crystallize.  Evaporation  and 
filtering  through  bone-charcoal  are  the  processes 
employed.  After  this  second  filtration,  the  juice 
is  transparent  and  syrup-like,  but  still  contains 
much  water.  This  is  finally  removed  by  boiling 
in  vacuum   pans. 

All  these  processes  may  be  conducted  in  the 
factory.  The  labor,  cost,  and  difficulty  of  convey- 
ing enormous  quantities  of  roots  to  a  building, 
where  the  juice  only  was  to  be  utilized,  caused 
attention  to  be  turned  to  the  invention  of  some 
mode  of  transporting  the  juice  alone.  A  system 
of  underground  piping,  from  a  central  factory  to 
the  beet-farms  supplying  it,  has  been  found  to 
work  well.  A  diffusion  apparatus  is  used  on  each 
farm  to  extract  the  juice.  This  is  received  in 
tanks,  treated  with  one  per  cent  of  lime,  and 
pumped  into  the  pipes.  When  the  juice  reaches 
the  factory,  it  flows  into  large  vats.  A  factory  at 
Cambray,  France,  makes  sugar  from  juice  obtained 
from  12,250  acres  of  beets. 

The  mass  of  impure  sugar  crystals,  secured 
from  the  vacuum  pans,  has  next  to  undergo  treat- 
ment   that    will    separate    the    sugar    from    the 


224  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

molasses.  A  centrifugal  machine,  charged  with 
the  dark  crystalline  material,  is  made  to  revolve 
rapidly  till  the  color  of  the  sugar  has  changed  to 
a  reddish  tint,  when,  without  checking  the  rotation, 
a  small  quantity  of  pure  syrup  is  poured  into  this 
sugar  ;  the  result  is  a  clear  yellow  tint  in  the 
entire  mass.  Dry  steam  is  now  injected  into  the 
machine,  and  soon  the  sugar  becomes  perfectly 
white. 

This  sugar  is  known  as  "  first  sugar."  The 
liquor  flowing  from  the  centrifugal  is  reheated  in 
tanks,  filtered,  boiled,  stored  in  cisterns  for  some 
time,  and  passed  through  the  centrifugal  machine 
again.  The  crystallized  substance  forms  the  "  sec- 
ond sugar  "  of  the  trade.  The  molasses  is  some- 
times boiled  once  more,  and  " third  sugar"  is 
obtained  then. 

One  hundred  pounds  of  the  best  Silesian  beet- 
roots will  yield  about  five  pounds  of  first  sugar, 
one  and  a  half  pounds  of  second  sugar,  a  half 
pound  of  third  sugar,  and  one  and  a  half  pounds 
of  molasses.  The  inferiority  of  the  beet  as  a 
sugar  producer,  compared  with  the  sugar-cane, 
becomes  apparent  when  we  learn  that  one  hundred 
pounds  of  the  cane  will  furnish  fourteen  pounds 
of  first   sugar. 


THE  BEST  TREE.  225 

Lesson  LXI. 
The  Best  Tree. 

The  sugar-maple,  or  rock-maple  as  it  is  called 
in  some  States,  is  a  tall,  handsome  tree,  growing 
throughout"  most  of  the  North  American  Conti- 
nent. Maple  wood  makes  excellent  fuel ;  and  the 
steady  demand  for  firewood  has  caused  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  maple  forests  in  parts  of  the  eastern 
section  of  the  country.  Still,  many  sugar-maple 
groves,  or  "bushes,"  remain,  from  which  sap  is 
obtained  every  spring. 

In  those  sections  where  the  tree  prevails,  the 
farmer  owning  a  sugar  grove  finds  its  produce 
a  paying  addition  to  other  agricultural  industries. 
The  syrup  and  sugar  are  made  before  it  is  time  to 
commence  spring  work.  The  apparatus  for  col- 
lecting the  sap  and  manufacturing  the  sugar  costs 
only  a  very  small  sum  of  money.  The  fuel  con- 
sumed is  usually  found  in  the  grove ;  and  in 
a  month  from  the  date  at  which  the  sap  began  to 
run,  the  farmer  may  have  the  cash  for  his  surplus 
product.  He  receives  the  money,  too,  at  a  time 
when  he  rarely  has  any  other  production  to  sell. 

Vermont  has  given  more  attention  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  maple-sugar  industry,  and  has  been 


226  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

more  prompt  to  adopt  new  processes  of  manufac- 
turing the  sugar  and  syrup,  than  any  other  State. 
New  York  and  Ohio  have  each  a  larger  area 
devoted  to  sugar-maples,  but  in  those  States  the 
ways  of  making  maple-sugar  are  wasteful  and  old- 
fashioned.  Vermont's  yearly  sugar-maple  product 
is  valued  at  over  $1,200,000.  It  is  not  strange, 
therefore,  that  the  beautiful  maple  woods  which 
clothe  the  hillsides  of  the  "  Green  Mountain 
State  "  should  command  a  higher  price  than  land 
covered  with  any  other  timber. 

The  sweet  sap  begins  to  flow  up  through  the 
tree  on  the  disappearance  of  winter.  The  flow 
commonly  lasts  from  the  end  of  February  to  the 
middle  of  April.  Frosty  nights,  alternating  with 
sunny  days,  tend  to  increase  the  quantity  of  sap, 
which  is  more  abundant  in  the  day  than  at  night. 
The  sap  current  is,  however,  very  sensitive  to 
unfavorable  weather.  A  run  of  three  gallons  a 
day  from  a  tree  may  almost  cease  in  a  few  hours, 
and  then  it  may  gradually  recover  its  former 
vigor. 

The  amount  of  sugar  in  the  sap  varies  with  the 
location  of  the  tree.  The  sap  of  a  tree  standing 
alone  is  richer  in  sugar  than  sap  from  trees  massed 
together  in  woods.  Usually  about  five  gallons  of 
sap  are  required  to  produce  one  pound  of  sugar. 
An  average  tree  will  give  as  much  as  three  gallons 


THE  BEST  TREE.  227 

of  sap  daily,  furnishing  about  fourteen  pounds  of 
sugar  in  a  good  season. 

There  is  a  record  of  a  yield  by  one  tree  of  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  gallons  of  sap  in  a 
month.  Trees  under  twenty-five  years  of  age  are 
seldom  tapped.  Repeated  tapping  of  fully  matured 
trees  does  not  seem  to  affect  them  injuriously. 
In  many  instances  trees  have  been  tapped  for 
forty  consecutive  years.  The  first  season's  sap 
is   poorer   than   the  sap  obtained   in  after  years. 

The  trees  are  tapped  by  boring  with  a  three- 
fourth-inch  auger  to  a  depth  of  two  to  six  inches. 
The  sap  flows  through  a  spout,  in  each  auger-hole, 
into  a  pail.  About  three  taps  are  inserted  in  a 
tree,  but  they  have  to  be  changed  every  year  to 
fresh  places.  The  sap  is  evaporated  in  shallow 
copper  boilers.  Care  is  taken  during  evaporation 
to  keep  the  boilers  filled  with  sap  till  the  syrup 
begins  to  crystallize.  A  small  quantity  of  lime  is 
usually  mixed  with  the  syrup  in  order  to  destroy 
any  bitter  taste.  After  being  strained  and 
skimmed,  the  syrup  is  poured  into  pans  to  harden. 


228  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  LXII. 
Five  Saccharine  Substances. 

The  preparation  of  syrup  from  the  melon  is  an 
industry  of  considerable  importance  in  California. 
Melons  constitute  an  unfailing  crop  in  that  State, 
and  factories  have  been  erected  there  to  turn 
melon  juice  into  syrup.  Watermelons  with  white 
pulp  are  preferred.  The  seed  was  obtained  from 
Hungary.  The  juice  of  the  melons  will  not 
readily  crystallize  ;  hence  it  is  evaporated  only  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  afford  syrup,  eight  gallons  of 
juice  being  required  to  make  one  gallon  of  syrup. 
This  syrup  is  superior  in  flavor  to  any  other  in  the 
market. 

In  Switzerland,  milk-sugar,  to  the  value  of 
$100,000,  is  made  every  year.  The  raw  material 
is  whey  obtained  from  cheese  factories.  Evaporat- 
ing the  water  of  the  whey  leaves  a  substance 
termed  sugar-sand.  This  is  dissolved  in  water ; 
the  solution  is  then  boiled,  strained,  and  allowed 
to  stand  in  copper-lined  tubs  to  crystallize.  Chips 
of  wood  are  immersed  in  the  syrup,  and  soon 
become  coated  with  crystals.  These  crystals  are 
purer  than  the  ones  deposited  on  the  sides  of 
the  vessels,  and  bring  a  higher  price.     There  is  a 


FIVE  SACCHARINE  SUBSTANCES.       229 

brisk  demand  for  milk-sugar,  large  quantities  of 
it  being  used  in  the  preparation  of  homoeopathic 
medicines  and  infants'   foods. 

During  the  last  half  century,  British  India  has 
been  steadily  increasing  its  export  of  palm-sugar, 
a  saccharine  substance  often  called  date-tree  sugar, 
or  jaggary.  The  sugar-palm  requires  a  hot  climate 
and  plenty  of  water.  The  tree  is  raised  from 
seed,  and  attains  a  height  of  fifteen  to  twenty-five 
feet.  Its  growth  is  stunted  very  much  by  tapping, 
which  is  generally  begun  about  the  seventh  year 
of  the  tree's  age. 

A  small  piece  of  the  bark  is  removed  high  up 
on  the  trunk.  For  a  week  or  ten  days,  the  ex- 
posed wood  is  left  to  harden,  what  little  sap 
exudes  being  wasted.  After  the  first  frost,  the 
sap  runs  freely.  The  cutter  climbs  the  tree  again, 
and  makes  the  opening  deeper.  As  the  tree  has 
no  limbs  to  aid  his  ascent,  he  fastens  loosely 
around  his  waist  and  also  around  the  tree  a  strong 
rope ;  then,  by  pressing  his  feet  against  the  trunk, 
leaning  back  against  the  rope,  raising  it,  and  step- 
ping upwards,  alternately,  he  quickly  reaches  the 
desired  position.  There,  supporting  himself  against 
the  rope,  he  works  with  both  hands  free. 

A  grooved  stick,  inserted  in  the  opening,  con- 
veys the  juice  into  earthen  vessels  tied  to  the 
tree.  The  sugar  is  prepared  by  boiling  it  in  pans 
—  a  wasteful  method. 


230  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

No  lime  is  used  during  the  boiling.  When  the 
juice  commences  to  granulate,  it  is  removed  and 
put  aside  to  crystallize.  A  sugar-palm  will  yield, 
on  the  average,  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of 
juice  in  a  season,  a  very  much  larger  quantity  than 
would  be  obtained  from  a  sugar-maple  in  one 
spring. 

The  sugar  value  of  those  food-grasses  known  as 
Guinea  corn,  millet,  durra,  and  sorgo,  has  for  ages 
been  recognized  in  Africa  and  China.  Of  late 
years,  renewed  attention  has  been  attracted  to 
those  plants  in  the  United  States  and  Canada. 
There  are  now  in  several  of  our  Western  States 
mills  for  making  sugar  from  sorghum. 

This  plant  is  closely  allied  to  our  Indian  corn, 
and  grows  wild  in  China  and  Africa.  Like  corn, 
it  is  cultivated  in  hills  or  in  closely  planted  rows. 
It  is  hardier  than  the  sugar-cane,  grows  about 
fifteen  feet  high,  matures  in  one  season,  and  will 
generally  yield  one-half  its  weight  in  juice.  From 
five  to  ten  gallons  of  the  juice  are  required  to 
make  a  gallon  of  syrup,  and  an  acre  of  sorghum 
will  furnish  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two 
hundred  and  fifty  gallons  of  juice.  The  stalks  are 
squeezed  between  iron  rollers,  to  obtain  the  juice, 
or  the  diffusion  process  is  employed.  About 
1,000,000  pounds  of  sorghum-sugar  and  25,000,000 
gallons  of  the  syrup  are  annually  produced  in  the 
United  States. 


FIVE   SACCHARINE   SUBSTANCES.       23 1 

Glucose  is  a  kind  of  sugar  manufactured  from 
starch.  In  this  country  the  starch  is  got  from 
corn,  in  Europe  from  potatoes.  The  glucose 
industry  is  now  a  very  extensive  one.  Costly 
machinery  is  required  to  make  the  finished  articles 
—  starch-sugar  and  glucose  syrup.  The  starch  is 
boiled  in  water  to  which  sulphuric  acid  has  been 
added.  Sulphate  of  lime  is  formed,  and  falls  to 
the  bottom  of  the  tank.  The  thin  watery  syrup 
left  is  evaporated  and  refined. 

The  products  of  the  starch-sugar  mills  are  used 
chiefly  for  making  table  syrups,  candies,  bee-food, 
and  imitation  honey.  Nearly  all  kinds  of  candy 
are  made  of  glucose.  Most  of  the  syrup  sold  in 
grocery  stores  is  manufactured  from  starch-sugar. 
Usually  cane-sugar  syrup  is  added  till  the  tint 
reaches  a  certain  standard. 

The  crystalline  sugar  from  starch  is  often  em- 
ployed to  adulterate  other  sugars.  When  reduced 
to  powder,  glucose  can  be  mixed,  in  almost  any 
proportion,  with  cane-sugar,  without  danger  of  de- 
tection, except  from  chemical  analysis.  As  starch- 
sugar  costs  less  than  half  the  price  of  cane-sugar, 
such  adulteration  is  extremely  profitable. 


232  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  LXIII. 
Other  Sweet  Things. 

No  one  knows  when  it  was  first  discovered  that 
juicy  fruit,  boiled  with  sugar  and  protected  from 
the  air,  would  retain  its  flavor  a  long  time.  An 
immense  amount  of  labor  has  to  be  performed  to 
make  the  vast  quantity  of  conserves  used  every 
year.  This  labor  could  not  be  done  in  a  few 
weeks,  except  at  too  great  a  cost.  Therefore,  some 
means  must  be  adopted  to  keep  the  ripe  fruit  fit 
for  preserving  all  the  year  round,  if  the  products 
of  the  preserve-factories  are  to  be  sold  at  the 
lowest  price. 

When  fruit  is  received  at  the  factory,  it  is  set  to 
boil,  for  a  few  minutes,  in  its  own  juice.  Then 
it  is  put  in  strong  stone  jars  which  are  stored 
away  in  a  cool  cellar.  Fruit  thus  prepared  will 
keep  sound  for  twelve  months,  and  can  be  utilized, 
at  any  time  of  the  year,  to  fill  orders  for  either 
jams  or  jellies.  Jams  contain  the  seeds  and  skins. 
Jellies  are  fruit  juices  boiled  with  sugar.  Whole 
fruits  are  used  to  make  preserves.  Fruits  boiled 
in  syrup,  and  subsequently  dried,  are  said  to  be 
candied  or  crystallized. 

Our   national   appetite  for   these   various  fruit 


OTHER  SWEET  THINGS.  233 

confections  is  enormous.  Numerous  factories, 
equipped  with  heavy  machinery  for  manufacturing 
conserves,  fail  to  supply  the  American  demand 
for  these  delicious  food  adjuncts.  Thousands  of 
pounds  of  them  come  to  us  from  Europe  every 
week.  Great  Britain  sends  the  largest  share. 
One  London  establishment  uses  up,  daily,  several 
tons  of  fruit.  A  factory  in  Dundee,  Scotland, 
produces,  in  its  busiest  season,  2,500  pounds  of 
marmalade  every  day.  This  marmalade  is  pre- 
pared from  the  Seville  orange,  the  rind  of  which 
has   a  peculiar  bitter   flavor. 

The  labor  involved  in  making  factory  preserves 
is  light,  and  is  done  mostly  by  women  and  girls, 
as  they  work  for  lower  wages  than  men  could 
afford  to  accept.  The  oranges  are  first  sorted 
over,  the  damaged  ones  thrown  aside,  and  the 
eyes  picked  off  the  remainder.  Washing  the 
oranges  in  immense  tubs  is  the  next  process. 
Then  each  fruit  is  halved  and  pulped  by  machinery. 

The  rind,  the  flavorer  of  the  conserve,  is  cut  by 
machines.  Revolving  knives  slice  the  peel  in 
thin  rings.  Every  one  of  these  machines  cuts  off 
2,000  rings  a  minute !  The  cut  peel  is  dropped 
into  vats  of  cold  water,  which  is  boiled  by  steam 
passing  through  iron  pipes  coiled  on  the  bottom 
of  each  vat.  Another  machine  expresses  the  juice 
from  the  pulp. 


234  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Peel  and  juice  are  then  put  into  huge  copper 
pans,  half  full  of  thick  syrup  of  white  sugar,  and 
are  boiled  till  the  desired  degree  of  consistence 
has  been  reached.  The  operatives  in  charge  of 
the  boiling  regulate  it  by  the  steam-gauge  and  the 
thermometer.  If  the  fruit  is  over-boiled,  the 
syrup  will  harden  into  candy,  and  if  not  sufficiently 
boiled,  the  conserve  will  mold.  Small  stone  jars 
are  used  to  hold  the  marmalade  intended  for 
export. 

If  orange-peel  is  to  be  candied,  it  is  first  placed 
for  a  few  days  in  brine.  After  being  taken  out, 
the  peel  is  rinsed  through  several  waters,  and  the 
white  tasteless  portion  is  removed.  The  yellow 
rind  left  is  then  steeped  in  thin  syrup  for  months. 
Withdrawn  from  the  syrup,  the  rind  is  dried  on 
long  racks  in  a  hot  room,  and  then  is  boiled  once 
more  —  this  time  in  thick  syrup.  Dried  again, 
the  sugared  rind  is  ready  to  add  another  attraction 
to  the  windows  of  the  fancy  grocery-stores. 

Confections. — Candy  is  so  plentiful  to-day 
that  it  is  difficult  to  believe  it  was  unknown  two 
hundred  years  ago.  If  there  were  a  king  of  con- 
fectioners, all  our  little  folks  would  doubtless  want 
to  be  citizens  of  his  realm.  But,  if  we  live  in  a 
city,  we  can  easily  visit  a  small  kingdom,  where  all 
the  inhabitants  may  eat  all  the  candy  they  wish. 
But  visitors  do  not  have  that  privilege,  alas  ! 


OTHER  SWEET   THINGS.  235 

Candy-making  is  an  important  industry  in  every 
civilized  country,  and  is  especially  valuable  here  in 
the  United  States ;  for  Americans  have  more 
money  to  spend  for  luxuries  than  any  other  peo- 
ple. A  candy  manufactory  is  usually  a  large 
building.  Machinery  is  seen  on  every  floor, 
and  the  workers  are  more  numerous  than  in  a 
flour-mill. 

The  "dough"  of  the  confectioners  is  composed 
of  pulverized  sugar,  mixed  with  water  and  gum, 
and  flavored.  A  mass  of  such  dough  is  smoothed 
out  by  iron  rollers  into  a  thin  sheet.  Out  of  this, 
a  machine-punch  cuts  hundreds  of  disks.  They 
reach  the  candy  shops  as  lozenges.  Large  copper 
boilers,  each  one  revolving  on  a  pivot,  contain 
almond  kernels.  A  stream  of  syrup  flows  into 
every  boiler,  and  slowly  builds  a  sugar  armor 
around  each  kernel. 

Rock-candy  is  made  by  placing  threads  in  pans 
filled  with  a  kind  of  syrup  that  hardens  very 
slowly.  The  sugar  crystals  cluster  on  the  threads. 
Syrup  is  evaporated,  leaving  a  brown  mass.  This 
is  spread  on  a  marble  slab,  and  kneaded,  and 
rolled  out.  Thrown  over  a  hook  in  the  wall,  the 
dark,  tenacious  mass  is  pulled,  drawn  out,  and 
doubled.  It  is  tossed  again  on  to  the  hook,  and 
lengthened  out  once  more,  and  twisted  into  a 
cable,   growing   lighter   in    color    every    moment. 


236  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

When  this  solidified  syrup  becomes  cold,  it  is 
broken  in  pieces,  and  sold  to  us  under  the  name 
of  molasses  candy. 


Lesson   LXIV. 
Salt. 


Salt  is  essential  to  the  life  of  the  higher  ani- 
mals, including  man,  and  has  been  known  from 
the  remotest  period.  Although  a  mineral,  and 
the  only  mineral  eaten  by  human  beings,  it  under- 
goes certain  changes  in  the  body.  The  chemists 
tell  us  that  salt  is  composed  of  two  elements,  one 
called  sodium  and  the  other  chlorine.  The  sodium 
forms  part  of  the  soda  which  is  needed  in  the  bile. 
Without  this  soda,  food  could  not  be  digested. 
Chlorine  must  be  had  in  order  to  furnish  a  neces- 
sary acid  for  the  gastric  fluid,  and  also  to  aid  in 
making  those  exceedingly  minute  red  disks  which 
give  the  blood  its  color. 

Salt  is  obtained  from  three  sources,  —  mines, 
the  ocean,  and  brine  springs.  Millions  of  years 
before  man  came  on  the  earth,  there  were  seas  on 
tracts  of  land  now  dry.  The  water  vaporized, 
and  left  the  salt.  Violent  earthquakes  covered 
many  of  the  former  sea  beds  with  deep  layers  of 


SALT.  237 

earth.  Ages  on  ages  passed  before  the  powdery 
sea-salt  hardened  into  the  rock-salt  of  to-day.  A 
brine  spring  is  a  stream  of  water  flowing  through 
a  deposit  of  rock-salt. 

It  should  not  surprise  us  to  learn  that  numerous 
deep  salt  mines  have  been  found.  If  the  entire 
body  of  salt  water,  known  as  the  ocean,  were  dried 
up,  it  would  yield  a  mass  of  rock-salt  fourteen  and 
a  half  times  greater  than  the  Continent  of  Europe 
above  high-water  mark. 

At  one  time,  almost  all  the  salt  of  commerce 
was  made  by  evaporating  sea-water  ;  and,  indeed, 
salt  thus  made  is  still  a  staple  article  of  trade  in 
many  countries.  Europe  manufactures  annually 
over  1, 200, ocxd  tons  of  salt  from  sea-water.  Low- 
lying  shore  land  is  levelled,  shallow  square 
pits  are  dug  in  it,  and  floored  with  clay  to 
prevent  the  water  from  sinking  through.  In 
these  pits,  the  sea-water  is  stored,  and  allowed  to 
vaporize. 

The  rock-salt  mines  of  Austria  are  extensive 
enough  to  supply,  for  centuries,  all  demands  for 
salt.  Austrian  salt  is  so  pure  that  it  needs  no 
refining.  Near  Wieliczka  is  a  celebrated  salt- 
mine. It  has  been  worked  continuously  for  seven 
centuries.  The  mass  of  salt  is  about  five  hundred 
miles  long,  twenty  miles  broad,  and  twelve  hun- 
dred feet  thick.     As  the  salt  is  quarried  out,  pre- 


238  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

cautions  are  taken  that  immense  pillars  of  it  shall 
be  left  to  support  the  roof  of  each  level. 

The  mine  is  divided  into  four  levels,  and  is  one 
and  a  half  miles  long,  one-half  mile  wide,  and  eight 
hundred  and  sixty  feet  deep.  The  length  of  the 
galleries  equals  thirty  miles.  The  annual  yield 
is  55,000  tons.  This  mine  employs  about  a  thou- 
sand persons,  most  of  whom  live  all  the  time 
underground.  On  the  lowest  level,  there  is  a 
village  with  houses,  schools,  stores,  and  a  church 
—  all  cut  out  of  salt !  When  this  village  is  lighted, 
the  effect  is  beautiful  beyond  description. 

It  seems  to  us  that  we  could  not  exist  without 
salt,  yet  it  must  have  been  impossible  for  many 
tribes  to  procure  it  in  ancient  times.  Even  nowa- 
days, it  is  a  rare  luxury  in  Central  Africa.  It  was 
unknown  in  portions  of  America  till  introduced  by 
the  Europeans.  But  if  people  live  on  raw  meat, 
which  always  contains  salt,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
add  more  salt. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  vegetable  diet  calls  for 
a  supplement  of  salt.  Upon  this  fact  depends  the 
important  part  played  by  the  mineral  in  the  his- 
tory of  commerce.  The  oldest  trade  routes  were 
created  for  traffic  in  salt.  When  men  began  to 
till  the  ground,  and  to  eat  grains  and  other  vege- 
tables, salt  became  a  necessary  of  life.  It  had  to 
be  provided  at  any  cost. 


SALT.  239 

In  the  United  States,  salt  is  procured  from 
brine  springs.  The  water  is  pumped  into  wooden 
vats,  and  evaporated  by  exposure  to  the  sun. 
But  our  common  fine  table-salt  is  prepared  by 
boiling  partly-evaporated  brine  in  iron  kettles. 
The  more  rapid  the  boiling,  the  smaller  will  be 
the  crystals.  Vats,  heated  by  steam,  are  used  for 
salt-boiling  in  some  places. 

All  farm-stock  should  be  fed  salt  regularly.  The 
milk  from  cows  deprived  of  salt  is  very  unwhole- 
some. If  no  salt  be  given  to  sheep,  their  wool 
will  be  short  and  coarse.  Various  manufactures 
require  salt.  The  glass-worker  and  the  soap- 
maker  depend  on  it  to  furnish  from  its  sodium 
the  soda  needed  by  each  in  his  respective  occu- 
pation. 

Our  extremely  important  industry  of  cotton- 
manufacturing  could  not  subsist  a  day  without 
salt  —  one  of  its  elements  supplies  the  chlorine  in- 
dispensable in  bleaching.  The  thousands  of  men 
engaged  in  meat-packing  would  be  idle,  were  no 
salt  obtainable.  If  salt  should  fail  us,  all  the  cream- 
eries would  have  to  close  their  doors,  a  multitude 
of  working-people  would  be  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment, and  butter  would  become  a  luxury  of  the 
rich.  Salt  is  a  much  more  valuable  mineral  than 
gold. 


240  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  LXV. 
Sour  and  Sweet. 

What  is  sourer  than  vinegar  ?  what  sweeter 
than  honey  ?  Who  would  not  be  willing  to  say 
that  there  are  no  two  things  in  the  list  of  foods 
more  unlike  ?  Yet  honey  can  be  changed  into 
vinegar  inside  of  an  hour !  It  is  quite  probable 
that  the  vinegar  on  your  table  has  been  made  from 
glucose  or  sorghum  syrup.  All  sweet  liquids  can 
be  fermented  and  turned  sour.  It  is  not  singular, 
then,  that  makers  of  jams  should  be  also  makers 
of  pickles. 

Vinegar  is  really  acetic  acid  very  much  diluted 
with  water,  and  colored  with  chicory  or  burnt 
coffee.  Four  kinds  of  vinegar  are  in  common  use. 
These  are  malt  vinegar,  wine  vinegar,  wood  vine- 
gar, and  vinegar  from  starch  or  syrup.  In  all  these 
liquids,  the  acid  is  the  same,  but  there  are  differ- 
ences in  flavor  and  odor.  It  is  usual,  however,  to 
add  coloring  matter  and  flavoring  extracts  to  in- 
ferior vinegar  in  order  to  deceive  purchasers. 

Wood  vinegar  is  the  only  kind  not  formed  from 
alcohol.  Weak  alcohol  may  be  changed  into  acetic 
acid  by  simple  exposure  to  warm  air,  but  yeast  is 
usually  employed  to    hasten   the    change.     Cider 


SOUR  AND   SWEET.  241 

vinegar  is  often  made  by'mixing  cider  and  water 
and  pouring  the  compound  into  large  tubs  filled 
with  beech  shavings.  After  soaking  through 
these,  it  is  placed  in  a  hot  room,  where  it  rapidly 
turns  extremely  sour.  White-wine  vinegar  is  pro- 
duced from  the  lees  of  the  colorless  wines  of 
Germany  and  France.  The  yearly  product  is 
limited,  and  but  very  little  of  it  is  imported  into 
this  country. 

Vinegar  is  much  used  not  only  as  a  condiment 
in  sauces  and  salads  but  also  in  making  a  great 
variety  of  pickles.  The  vegetables  preserved  in 
vinegar  include,  among  others,  onions,  red  cabbage, 
mushrooms,  small  corn-cobs,  tomatoes,  cucumbers, 
and  most  of  the  common  fruits.  Care  should  be 
taken  that  the  pickles  be  free  from  copper,  a  poi- 
sonous metal,  which  sometimes  finds  its  way  into 
the  vinegar  through  the  action  of  that  acid  on  the 
vessels  used  in  preparing  pickles. 

Honey  is  collected  from  flowers  by  several 
kinds  of  insects,  and  stored  up  as  food  for  them- 
selves and  their  progeny.  The  honey  familiar  to 
us  is  gathered  by  bees.  The  amount  of  labor  per- 
formed in  a  season  by  even  one  of  these  marvellous 
little  insects  is  incredible. 

It  has  been  ascertained  that  125  heads  of  com- 
mon red  clover,  which  is  a  plant  abundant  in 
nectar,  yield  only  1 5  grains  of  glucose  sugar,  the 


242  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

main  element  of  honey ;  and  as  each  head  contains 
about  60  florets,  7,500,000  distinct  flower-tubes 
must  be  exhausted  to  obtain  two  pounds  of  glu- 
cose. But  to  make  up  two  pounds  weight  of  bees, 
how  many  of  these  industrious  little  creatures 
would  be  required  ?     Ten  thousand. 

In  Brazil,  wasps  collect  honey,  but  it  is  poison- 
ous. Ant-honey  is  common  in  Mexico.  It  is  not 
so  pleasant  to  the  taste  as  bee-honey.  The  flavor 
of  honey  varies  with  the  flowers  from  which  it  has 
been  procured.  The  finest  honey  comes  from  the 
bee-belt  of  California.  In  that  district,  white  sage 
is  extremely  plentiful,  and  its  flowers  produce  a 
nectar  unequalled  anywhere  else.  Basswood, 
white  clover,  and  buckwheat  honey  rank,  in  value, 
in  the  order  named.  Much  of  the  honey  sold  is 
adulterated  with  various  substances.  Even  artifi- 
cial honey-combs  are  made,  and  filled  with  cheap 
syrup  flavored  with  essential  oils. 

To  the  ancients,  honey  was  very  important ;  for  it 
was  their  sole  source  of  sugar.  Honey  was  valued 
by  the  Saxons  as  a  medicine ;  but  by  the  Turks  it 
has  always  been  used  for  making  candy.  Palestine, 
the  "land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,"  is,  even 
at  the  present  time,  famous  for  wild  honey.  It 
is  not  unusual  to  see  combs,  dripping  honey, 
attached  to  trees  in  the  wilderness  of  Judaea. 

The  bee-keeping  industry  in  the  United  States 


SOUR  AND   SWEET.  243 

has  made  tremendous  strides  in  advance  during  the 
last  ten  years.  Its  magnitude  is  not  fully  recog- 
nized, owing  to  the  fact  that  apiculture  is  carried 
on,  nearly  everywhere,  as  an  incident  of  general 
farming.  Every  State  and  Territory  reports  bees 
and  honey,  usually  a  few  hives  for  each  farmer, 
but  occasionally  an  extensive  apiary  is  mentioned. 

In  some  localities,  where  conditions  for  bee-keep- 
ing are  particularly  favorable,  as  in  portions  of 
New  York  and  California,  there  is  a  heavy  pro- 
duction of  honey. 

The  aggregate  value  of  our  wax  and  honey  prod- 
ucts is  large, —  much  larger  than  that  of  other 
crops  of  which  more  notice  is  taken.  In  the  report 
of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  for  1890,  we  are 
told  that  the  honey  harvest  nearly  equals  in  value 
the  rice  crop  of  the  country,  and  falls  but  little 
below  the  money  value  of  the  buckwheat  yield. 
All  the  molasses,  maple-sugar,  and  maple  syrup 
produced  annually  do  not  bring  so  substantial  a 
return  in  cash  as  the  bee-keepers  obtain  for  their 
honey  ;  and  a  hive  of  bees  will  gather  from  50  to 
100  pounds  of  it  in  a  season.  A  few  years  ago, 
a  bee-farmer  in  Central  New  York  was  presented 
by  one  of  his  bee-colonies  with  700  pounds  of 
honey,  the  result  of  a  summer's  work.  This  yield 
has  never  been  surpassed  by  a  single  hive. 


244  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES 

Lesson    LXVI. 
Condiments. 

Ginger  is  the  underground  stem  of  a  reed-like 
plant  growing  from  three  to  four  feet  high.  The 
use  of  ginger  as  a  spice  dates  back  to  very  early 
times.  The  plant  is  not  found  wild.  It  is,  how- 
ever, thought  to  be  a  native  of  tropical  Asia. 
Soon  after  the  discovery  of  America,  the  plant 
was  introduced  into  the  West  Indies  from  Hindo- 
stan.  Ginger  was  exported  from  San  Domingo  to 
Spain  within  forty  years  after  the  settlement  of 
the  former  country. 

Most  of  the  ginger  brought  into  the  United 
States  is  of  the  uncoated  kind  —  that  is,  the  root 
has  been  scraped.  Inferior  ginger  roots  are  often 
washed  with  lime-water  to  hide  defects.  Various 
parts  of  the  world  are  drawn  on  for  our  supplies 
of  ginger.  Calcutta  sends  us  large  quantities  of 
it.  But  the  best  ginger  comes  from  Jamaica. 
The  plant  is  used  chiefly  as  a  condiment,  but  it 
has  some  medicinal  value  also.  The  young  shoots 
washed,  scraped,  and  preserved  in  syrup,  form 
a  delicious  conserve.  This  comes  to  us  from 
China. 

In  ancient  days,  an  ounce  of  the  inner  bark  of 


CONDIMENTS.  245 

the  cinnamon-tree  —  a  tree  growing  then  in  Ceylon 
only  —  was  regarded  as  a  present  worth  a  mon- 
arch's acceptance.  This  bark  is  mentioned  in  the 
Old  Testament  in  a  passage  in  which  Moses  is 
commanded  to  use  "  sweet  cinnamon."  The 
shoots  of  the  tree  are  cut  down  twice  a  year  ;  the 
bark  is  then  detached  in  lengths  of  about  a  foot 
each. 

These  are  scraped  to  remove  the  outer  and 
middle  layers  of  the  bark.  The  remaining  portion 
of  each  piece  is  often  thereby  reduced  to  one- 
hundredth  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  There  is 
very  little  pure  cinnamon  sold  in  this  country. 
Cassia  bark,  which  is  very  much  inferior  in  flavor, 
is  generally  substituted  for  cinnamon. 

"Clavo"  is  the  name  that  the  Spaniards  gave 
to  the  dried  flower-buds  of  a  beautiful  evergreen 
tree  of  the  Myrtle  order.  Our  term  clove  is 
derived  from  this  Spanish  word,  which  means 
nail.  The  buds  are  first  of  a  pale  gray  ;  they  grad- 
ually become  green,  and  afterwards  suddenly  turn 
red.     They  are  then  fit  for  gathering. 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  all  the  cloves  of  com- 
merce came  from  a  few  islands  of  Malaysia.  For 
a  long  time,  the  clove  trade  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  Portuguese,  who  got  it  by  having  been  the 
first  maritime  nation  to  double  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.     After  a  desperate  struggle,  the  Dutch,  in 


246  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

1605,  expelled  the  Portuguese  from  the  principal 
clove-producing  islands  of  that  time,  the  Moluccas. 

Great  and  inhuman  efforts  were  then  put  forth 
by  the  Dutch  to  get  a  monopoly  of  the  trade. 
They  made  an  atrocious  attempt  to  destroy  all 
the  clove-trees  in  Malaysia,  except  those  in  the 
island  of  Amboyna,  where  they  expected  to  con- 
centrate the  entire  clove-production.  Thousands 
of  the  valuable  trees  were  cut  down,  and  whole 
districts,  dependent  on  the  commerce  in  cloves  for 
the  means  of  subsistence,  were  thereby  beggared. 
Fortunately,  the  evil  trick  was  not  completely 
successful.  To-day  the  chief  source  of  the  world's 
clove-supply  is  Zanzibar.  Yet  the  first  clove-tree 
in  the  island  was  planted  there  so  late  as  1830. 
A  tree  ten  years  old  will  produce  about  twenty 
pounds  of  cloves.  It  may  yield  one  hundred 
pounds  when   double  that  age. 

Perhaps  the  best-known  of  all  our  flavoring  sub- 
stances is  vanilla.  It  is  obtained  from  the  dried 
pod  of  a  species  of  orchid,  a  native  of  Mexico, 
but  now  extensively  cultivated  in  the  islands  of 
Reunion,  Java,  and   Mauritius. 

The  plant  has  aerial  rootlets,  and  appears  to 
draw  but  little  nourishment  from  the  soil.  The 
fruit  is  a  pod,  from  six  to  twelve  inches  long,  and 
one-half  inch  in  diameter.  The  pods  are  dark 
brown.    They  require  about  seven  months  to  ripen. 


CONDIMENTS.  247 

Mexican  vanilla  is  reputed  to  have  the  finest 
flavor.  The  plants  are  set  close  to  trellises,  and 
readily  attach  themselves  to  these  supports.  Pods 
are  produced  the  third  year,  and  the  plants  con- 
tinue to  bear  for  about  thirty  years.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  the  vanilla  flavor  does  not  exist  in  the 
pods  until  they  are  submitted  to  a  fermenting 
process.  Wrapped  in  woollen  cloths,  they  are 
placed  in  the  sun  during  the  day,  and  at  night 
are  enclosed  in  air-tight  boxes  to  sweat.  When 
fermentation  has  ceased,  the  pods  are  dried  out- 
doors for  about  two  months,  and  then  are  tied  up  in 
small  packets  for  export. 

Peppermint  is  widely  cultivated  (for  its  essen- 
tial oil)  in  Europe,  China,  and  the  United  States. 
The  oil  is  colorless,  has  an  agreeable  odor  and 
a  powerful  aromatic  flavor  ;  and  is  therefore  often 
employed  by  pharmacists  to  disguise  the  taste 
of  nauseous  medicines.  Peppermint  oil  is  also 
much  used  in  flavoring  confectionery. 

The  plant  is  fond  of  marshy  places  and  the 
banks  of  streams.  The  oil  is  obtained  by  distil- 
lation. New  York  and  Michigan  produce  about 
70,000  pounds  of  peppermint  oil  annually.  The 
average  yield  is  twenty  pounds  to  the  acre. 


248  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  LXVII. 
The  King's  Spices. 

The  most  common  and  widely  used  of  all  spices 
is  pepper.  It  is  a  native  of  the  East  Indies,  but 
is  now  cultivated  in  various  parts  of  the  tropical 
belt  of  this  hemisphere.  The  plant  is  a  climber, 
and  has  a  smooth  stem  sometimes  twelve  feet 
long.  The  fruit  is  about  the  size  of  a  pea,  and, 
when  ripe,  is  of  a  bright  red  color. 

In  cultivation,  the  plant  is  supported  by  poles. 
In  some  localities,  small  trees  are  used  instead  of 
poles  ;  for  the  best  pepper  is  grown  in  a  certain 
degree  of  shade.  The  plant  is  propagated  by 
cuttings,  comes  into  bearing  three  or  four  years 
after  it  is  set,  and  yields  two  crops  annually  for 
about  twelve  years.  When  a  few  of  the  berries 
change  from  green  to  red,  all  of  them  are  gathered  ; 
because,  if  they  were  allowed  to  ripen  any  longer, 
they  would  be  less  pungent. 

To  fit  them  for  market,  they  are  dried,  separated 
by  rubbing  with  the  hands,  and  cleaned  by  win- 
nowing. The  black  pepper  of  commerce  consists 
of  the  berries  thus  prepared.  Pepper  was  known 
to  the  ancients.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  it  was  one 
of  the  most  costly  of  spices,  a  pound  of  it  being 
a  royal  present. 


THE  KING'S  SPICES.  249 

The  nutmeg  is  the  kernel  of  the  fruit  of  several 
species  of  trees  growing  wild  in  Asia,  Africa,  and 
America.  The  cultivated  nutmeg-tree  is  from  fifty 
to  seventy  feet  high,  and  produces  fruit  for  sixty 
years.  The  fruit  is  of  the  size  and  appearance  of 
a  roundish  pear,  yellow  in  color.  The  fleshy  part 
of  the  fruit  is  rather  hard,  and  resembles  candied 
citron.  Within  is  the  nut,  enveloped  in  the  curious 
yellowish-red  aril,  known  to  us  as  mace. 

Up  to  1796,  the  Dutch,  being  in  possession  of 
the  islands  producing  the  only  valuable  variety  of 
the  nutmeg,  jealously  tried  to  prevent  the  carrying 
of  the  tree  or  a  living  seed  of  it  into  any  territory 
independent  of  Dutch  rule.  No  one  but  a  citizen 
of  the  Netherlands,  officially  licensed,  could  own 
a  nutmeg  plantation.  But  this  contemptible 
policy  could  not  long  be  enforced  against  the 
interests  of  commerce.  The  tree  is  now  culti- 
vated in  India,   Jamaica,  Trinidad,  and  Brazil. 

The  nutmeg  is  liable  to  the  attacks  of  a  kind  of 
beetle  ;  hence  a  coating  of  lime  is  generally  given 
to  the  nut,  to  protect  it  from  the  ravages  of  the 
insect.  The  tree  bears  fruit  the  whole  year 
round,  but  the  chief  harvest-time  comes  in  Novem- 
ber. The  Banda  Isles  are  almost  covered  with 
nutmeg-trees. 

To  prepare  the  seeds  for  use,  they  are  dried  in 
a  moderate   heat    for   about    two  months.     Then 


250  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

the  shells  are  broken,  and  the  nutmegs  are  picked 
out  and  assorted,  the  inferior  ones  being  reserved 
for  the  oil-press.  As  the  essential  oil  of  nutmeg 
brings  a  high  price,  dishonest  growers  often  steep 
the  nutmegs  in  hot  water  to  extract  the  oil  from 
them.  They  are  then  coated  with  lime,  and  sent 
into  the  channels  of  commerce. 

Such  nutmegs  are  worthless  ;  their  aroma  and 
pungency  have  disappeared,  these  qualities  being 
due  exclusively  to  the  oil.  If,  on  inserting  a  pin, 
no  oil  rushes  to  the  surface,  the  nutmeg  is  merely 
a  wooden  nutmeg.  The  genuine  spice  is  an  espe- 
cial favorite  with  our  people.  We  consume  more 
nutmegs  than  all  the  other  nations  of  the  world 
combined. 

There  are  two  varieties  of  mustard  —  black  and 
white.  Black  mustard  is  the  most  valuable  for 
commercial  purposes.  Its  seeds  are  very  minute, 
weighing  not  more  than  one-fiftieth  of  a  grain 
each.  Its  peculiar  pungent  taste  is  caused  by  an 
essential  oil.  This  oil  can,  like  fruit-flavors,  be 
exactly   imitated  by  the  chemists. 

Both  as  a  table  condiment  and  as  a  medicine, 
mustard  has  been  known  from  a  very  remote  period. 
As  now  found  in  our  grocery  stores,  this  spice 
consists  of  white  and  black  mustard-seeds,  mixed 
and  ground  fine.  The  white  mustard  keeps  better 
than  the  black  variety,  and  is  not  so  bitter.     A 


THE  KING'S  SP/CES.  2$l 

good  deal  of  the  mustard  sold  is  adulterated,  some- 
times with  wheat  flour,  but  more  often  with 
turmeric,  the  pulverized  root  of  a  common  East 
Indian    plant. 

In  many  instances,  flavorers  are  prepared  by 
distilling  fruits,  seeds,  barks,  and  leaves  —  the 
fragrant  essential  oils  being  drawn  out  and  con- 
densed. These  oils,  dissolved  in  spirits  of  wine, 
constitute  the  extracts,  or  flavoring  essences,  so 
much    used    in   cookery. 

Familiar  examples  are  the  essential  oils  of 
orange  and  lemon.  In  these  fruits,  the  oils  are 
found  in  the  rind,  and  can  be  removed  by  press- 
ure as  well  as  by  distillation.  The  peel,  often 
used  fresh  for  flavoring,  may  be  preserved  fra- 
grant by  careful  drying.  Compound  ethers  are 
also  now  quite  often  employed  as  flavoring  sub- 
stances. It  is  well  to  remember  that  all  condi- 
ments, spices,  and  flavorers  must  be  used  very 
sparingly  ;  if  taken  in  excess,  their  action  on  the 
processes  of  digestion  will  be  decidedly  injurious. 


252  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

Lesson  LXVIII. 
Tea. 

In  the  last  century,  the  degrading  habit  of  drink- 
ing intoxicating  liquor  was  more  prevalent  than  it 
is  to-day.  Among  the  agents  which  have  aided 
the  upward  progress  of  mankind,  those  two  strong 
allies  of  the  temperance  hosts,  tea  and  coffee, 
deserve  special  mention.  "  The  cups  that  cheer 
but  not  inebriate,"  is  the  poet  Cowper's  much- 
quoted  and  happy  description  of  a  cup  of  tea. 

It  has  long  been  believed  that  the  tea-plant  is  a 
native  of  China.  Recent  botanical  inquiry  proves 
that  Northern  India  is  the  original  home  of  the 
shrub  which  yields  the  tea  of  commerce.  There 
are  three  varieties  of  the  plant,  from  any  one  of 
which  both  green  and  black  tea  may  be  prepared. 
Black  tea  is  made  from  leaves  fermented  before 
drying ;  green  tea,  from  leaves  that  have  been 
quickly  dried.  Tea  is  often  artificially  colored  in 
order  to  defraud  purchasers.  Damaged  leaves  and 
exhausted  leaves  may  have  a  fictitious  color  im- 
parted to  them  by  the  use  of  black-lead,  indigo,  or 
Prussian  blue. 

Different  grades  of  strength  and  flavor  in  tea 
are  due  to  the  varieties  of  the  plant,  to  the  soil  and 


TEA. 


253 


climate,  to  the  age  of  the  leaves,  and  to  the  mode 
of  curing  and  drying  them.  The  younger  leaves 
yield  tea  of  the  highest  quality  and  most  delicate 
flavor.  These  leaves  contain  more  soluble  matters 
than  the   older  leaves.     The  best  tea,  therefore, 


Gathering  tea 


ASSAM. 


must  come  from  the  first  gathering.     This  usually 
occurs  late  in  May. 

To  produce  black  teas,  the  leaves,  after  being 
picked,  are  kept  in  the  open  air  till  they  begin  to 
emit  a  slight  aroma.  They  are  then  placed  in 
large  sheet-iron  pans,  and  dried  rapidly  over  a  hot 
fire.     To  prevent  the  leaves  from  being  burned, 


254  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

they  are  stirred  constantly.  Taken  out  of  the  pans, 
they  are  rolled  by  hand,  to  press  out  the  juice. 
Then  the  leaves  are  again  roasted ;  and,  a  second 
time,  rubbed  and  curled  between  the  hands  of  the 
workmen.  Assorting  the  leaves  is  the  next  pro- 
ceeding. Imperfect  leaves  are  thrown  into  one 
basket,  badly  colored  ones  into  another.  The  very 
finest  leaves  are  carefully  twisted,  one  by  one, 
between  the  fingers.  A  chest  of  these  leaves 
never  finds  its  way  into  a  grocery  store  in  the 
United  States. 

Tea  owes  its  stimulating  qualities  to  theine  —  a 
substance  which  acts  powerfully  on  the  nervous 
system.  Black  tea  contains  less  theine  than  green 
tea,  and  is  therefore  a  more  healthful  beverage. 
Tea  is  not  a  food,  adds  nothing  to  the  tissues  of 
the  body,  and  hence  is  practically  useless  to  young 
folks.  Tea  may  be  hurtful  to  persons  in  feeble 
health  on  account  of  the  theine's  effect  on  the 
nerves.  Doctors  sometimes  require  patients  to 
abstain  from  drinking  either  tea  or  coffee. 

Japan  is  another  great  tea-producing  and  tea- 
drinking  country.  Its  tea  has  the  great  merit  of 
being  less  adulterated  than  the  tea  from  China, 
though  Japan  tea  is  inferior  in  flavor,  according  to 
professional  tea-tasters.  Leaves  that  have  been 
damaged  by  water  are  often  re-dried,  gummed,  and 
colored.       Such    teas,    and    those    debased    with 


TEA.  255 

mineral  matters,  or  mixed  with  leaves  of  other 
plants,  are  known  in  China  by  the  appropriate 
name  of  lie  teas. 

Europe  knew  nothing  of  the  tea-leaf  until  16 10. 
A  Dutch  merchant  obtained,  in  that  year,  a  small 
quantity  of  tea  in  exchange  for  some  dried  sage. 
Half  a  century  afterwards,  tea  found  its  way  into 
England.  Since  its  introduction,  no  other  article 
of  commerce  has  had  so  remarkable  a  history.  In 
1664  the  East  India  Company  made  King  Charles 
II.  a  present  of  two  pounds  of  tea  —  a  magnificent 
gift,  and  a  rare  one,  in  those  days.  In  1889  Eng- 
land imported  over  148,000,000  pounds  of  tea.  A 
wonderful  growth  in  wealth  and  commerce  is  im- 
plied in  these  figures.  Half  the  human  race  drinks 
tea  habitually.  Of  the  European  countries,  Russia 
uses  the  most  tea,  England  ranking  second  in  the 
drinking  of  this  beverage.  Americans  prefer 
coffee. 

In  1830  an  officer  of  the  English  army,  an 
ardent  botanist,  found  the  tea-plant  growing  wild 
in  Hindoostan.  It  was  immediately  made  an  ob- 
ject of  culture  by  English  planters  in  India,  and  has 
been  grown  with  great  and  increasing  success  ever 
since.  East  Indian  tea  brings  higher  prices  in 
England   than   most    of  the    China   teas. 


256  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES, 

Lesson    LXIX. 
Coffee. 

From  time  immemorial,  coffee  has  been  used 
in  Abyssinia.  A  southern  province  of  that  land, 
Caffa,  is  supposed  to  have  given  the  name  to  the 
beverage.  For  centuries,  Arabia  was  considered 
the  original  habitat  of  the  plant,  but  botanists  are 
now  agreed  that  it  is  indigenous  to  several  tropical 
countries.  It  grows  wild  in  the  regions  men- 
tioned, and  also  in  the  West  Indies,  in  Brazil,  and 
along  the  Guinea  Coast.  Coffee  plantations  were 
found  in  Peru  by  the  Spanish  invaders  under 
Fizarro. 

The  plant  is  a  handsome  evergreen  shrub  about 
twenty  feet  in  height.  Its  flowers  are  white  and 
fragrant.  A  coffee  estate  in  full  bloom  is  an 
enchanting  scene.  A  visitor  from  the  United 
States,  riding  over  a  coffee  plantation  in  Mexico, 
some  morning  in  March,  might  note,  with  pleasure, 
the  long  rows  of  vigorous  shrubs  heavy  with  green 
clustering  buds.  Two  days  afterwards  he  might 
behold  the  entire  expanse  of  hill  and  dale  white 
with  blossoms. 

After  blooming  three  or  four  days,  the  flowers 
wither  and  fall.     Upon  the  stalks  on  which  they 


COFFEE. 


257 


grew,  groups  of  berries,  yellow  and  hard,  arise. 
Their  color  deepens  till  October  sees  them  a  dark 
crimson.  The  pulp  is  slightly  sweet,  and  is  liked 
by  birds  and  animals ;  hence  the  shrubs  must  be 
carefully  watched.  Within  the  berry  are  the 
coffee-beans,  two  seeds,  each  seed  having  one  side 


flat  and  the  other  round.  These  beans  have  the 
flat  sides  together,  and  are  covered  with  a  husk. 
The  Mocha  berry  has  only  one  seed,  a  roundish 
bean  —  two  seeds  grown  into  one  apparently. 

There  are  twenty-two  varieties  of  the  coffee- 
bean.  All  are  articles  of  commerce.  But  the 
Mocha  beans  raised  in  the  province  of  Yemen, 
Arabia,    never   find    their   way   into    the    United 


258  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

States.  Only  a  few  hundred-weights  of  them  are 
grown  yearly,  and  those  are  bought  up,  in  the 
province,  by  the  rich  Arabs.  Round  coffee-beans 
may  be  procured  here,  but  not  the  Mocha  variety. 

In  1690,  the  governor  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies 
received  a  few  coffee  seeds  from  a  merchant  trad- 
ing between  Arabia  and  Java.  He  planted  them 
in  a  garden  in  Batavia.  They  grew  rapidly,  and 
coffee-culture,  on  an  immense  scale,  was  immedi- 
ately begun  in  Java.  A  few  seeds  were  trans- 
mitted to  Holland.  One  of  the  plants  grown  from 
them  was  sent  to  Dutch  Guiana.  From  that  plant 
came  all  the  coffee-shrubs  in  America.  Brazil 
alone    has   600,000,000 ! 

From  Abyssinia,  coffee  was  introduced,  along 
the  old  caravan  routes,  into  Arabian  trading-marts 
about  1300;  and,  shortly  afterwards,  it  made  its 
way  into  Turkey  and  Persia.  Probably  the  bever- 
age is  far  older  than  our  scanty  records  tell  us. 
It  may  well  have  been  familiar  to  the  Egyptians 
even  in  the  reign  of  the  first  Pharaoh,  since  a 
large  part  of  their  trade  was  with  the  great  Negro 
cities  situated  in  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Nile. 

Early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  coffee  was 
a  common  drink  in  Turkish  cities.  The  Turks 
found  it  useful  in  keeping  them  awake  during 
their  prolonged  religious  exercises  in  the  mosques. 
In  1652  a  Greek,  who  had  lived  in  Constantinople, 


COFFEE. 


259 


opened  the  first  coffee-house  in  England.  His 
example  found  plenty  of  imitators,  for  the  bever- 
age soon  became  fashionable.  At  that  period, 
and  for  a  century  afterwards,  all  the  coffee  used 
came  from  Arabia. 

To-day  the  plant    is   cultivated  throughout  the 


Torrid  Zone.  The  size,  shape,  and  color  of  the 
seeds  determine  their  mercantile  value.  No  two 
plantations  produce  exactly  the  same  quality  of 
coffee,  but  the  size  and  hue  of  the  bean  are 
usually  influenced  by  the  locality  of  its  growth. 
Java  and  Ceylon    produce   coffee   of    a   superior 


260  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

flavor.  Liberian  coffee  is  preferred  by  many  per- 
sons. The  plant  of  this  coffee  is  a  favorite  with 
the  grower,  because  it  is  much  hardier  than  the 
Arabian  shrub,  and  yields  enormously ;  a  single 
tree  has  been  known  to  give  sixteen  pounds' 
weight    of   seeds    at    one   gathering. 

The  coffee-plant  is  grown  from  seed.  When 
the  seedlings  are  a  few  weeks  old,  they  are  set 
out  in  rows.  Some  berries  are  produced  in  the 
second  year,  and  a  full  crop  is  expected  in  the 
third.  The  seeds  are  pulped  out  of  the  berries 
by  roughened  cylinders,  revolving  in  opposite 
directions.  After  being  dried,  the  beans  are 
winnowed,  and  the  imperfect  ones  are  picked  out 
of  the  better  grades  of  coffee. 

When  green,  the  seeds  are  tasteless.  Their 
flavor  and  aroma  are  developed  by  roasting 
Great  care  is  taken  in  this  process.  Too  much 
heat  would  char  the  coffee  ;  it  is  insipid,  if  not 
roasted  enough.  The  older  the  beans  are,  the 
finer  is  their  flavor.  The  stimulating  effect  of 
the  beverage  is  produced  by  the  caffeine  present. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  coffee  belongs  to  the  order 
which  includes  the  tree  whose  bark  yields  quinine, 
an  extremely  valuable  medicine.  Caffeine  is  iden- 
tical with  theine. 

The  Galla,  a  tribe  of  Arabs  living  near  Southern 
Abyssinia,  have  for  ages  been  accustomed  to  carry 


THE  FOOD   OF  THE  GODS.  26 1 

with  them,  on  their  forays  into  Egypt,  nothing 
to  eat  but  ground  coffee,  mixed  with  butter, 
and  made  into  balls.  A  ball  about  three  inches 
in  diameter  will  keep  a  warrior  in  strength  and 
spirits  during  a  day's  march.  In  the  pestilent 
swamps  of  the  Amazon,  the  natives  rely  on  coffee 
to  ward  off  fever. 

The  use  of  coffee  is  on  the  increase.  To  meet 
the  growing  demand,  new  districts  for  cultivating 
the  plant  are  sought  everywhere  within  the  Torrid 
Zone.  The  site  of  the  latest  experiment  in  coffee- 
culture  is  East  Central  Africa.  Vast  plantations 
are  already  flourishing  there.  West  Africa  annu- 
ally sends  thousands  of  tons  of  a  high-grade 
coffee  to  Europe.  From  various  quarters  of  the 
globe,  the  United  States  imports  every  year 
280,000,000  pounds  of  coffee.  Three-fourths  of 
this  immense  quantity  comes  from  Brazil. 


Lesson    LXX. 

The  Food  of  the  Gods. 

The  great  botanist  Linnaeus  said  that  cocoa  is 
so  healthful  and  nutritious  that  it  should  be  named 
Thcobroma,  two  Greek  words  combined  into  one, 
meaning  "Food  of  the  Gods."     The  cocoa-tree  is 


262  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

a  native  of  our  sister  republic  of  Mexico,  and,  in 
a  wild  state,  reaches  a  height  of  sixteen  to  eigh- 
teen feet.  The  flowers  grow  not  only  on  the 
branches  but  also  on  the  trunk,  and  the  succeed- 
ing fruits  have,  in  consequence,  the  singular  ap- 
pearance of  being  artificially  fastened  to  the  tree. 

A  cocoa  pod,  or  fruit,  is  somewhat  pear-shaped, 
and  is  about  eight  inches  long.  Its  rind  is  hard, 
yellow  and  ridged.  In  the  interior,  there  are  five 
cells,  each  one  containing  from  five  to  ten  seeds 
inclosed  in  pink-colored  pulp.  These  are  the 
cocoa-beans  of  commerce.  They  are  prepared  for 
export  by  drying,  roasting,  and  winnowing. 

Cocoa  is  one-half  vegetal  fat.  The  largest  part 
of  this  fat  must  be  removed  before  the  cocoa  can 
be  considered  ready  for  table  use.  The  seeds  are 
ground  between  heated  stones  ;  the  "  flour  "  thus 
obtained  is  packed  in  bags,  and  subjected  to  great 
pressure.  The  fat,  called  cocoa-butter,  exudes, 
and  can   be   readily  collected. 

A  compound  of  starch  and  ground  cocoa  is  often 
termed  "soluble"  cocoa.  By  mixing  it  with  boil- 
ing water,  a  thick  mucilage  is  produced,  in  which 
the  cocoa  remains  suspended  —  it  does  not  dis- 
solve. Genuine  chocolate  is  cocoa  ground  up 
with  sugar,  and  flavored  with  vanilla,  or  with 
cinnamon  and  other  spices.  Chocolate  generally 
contains  some  starch    or  flour. 


THE  FOOD   OF  THE  GODS.  263 

The  area  of  cocoa-production  is  limited  to  the 
tropical  regions  of  the  Western  Hemisphere 
Brazil,  Guiana,  Venezuela,  Central  America, 
Mexico,  and  the  island  of  Trinidad  are  the  only 
countries  in  which  the  tree  is  cultivated.  The 
young  plants  are  very  delicate.  They  flower  in 
the  fourth  year,  and  are  in  full  bearing  vigor  when 
eight  years  old.  They  usually  remain  productive 
till  they  are  forty  or  fifty  years  of  age. 

The  trees  carry  buds,  flowers,  and  fruits  all  at 
the  same  time  ;  hence  ripe  pods  can  be  garnered 
at  any  period  of  the  year,  though  there  are  harvest 
seasons,  depending  on  the  weather.  In  Venezuela, 
where  the  famous  Caracas  cocoa  is  grown,  the 
largest  gatherings  take  place  in  June  and  Decem- 
ber. 

Cocoa  was  cultivated  in  Mexico  an^  Peru  before 
the  conquest  of  those  countries  by  the  Spaniards. 
The  ancient  Mexicans  employed  cocoa-grains  as 
money.  These  "  coins  "  had  the  unique  value  of 
enabling  the  owner  of  a  bushel  or  two  of  them  to 
support  himself,  whether  or  not  any  one  was 
willing  to  trade  with  him. 

In  1520,  Columbus  brought  some  cocoa  to 
Spain.  There  its  use  as  a  beverage  spread  rap- 
idly. Even  to-day  more  chocolate  is  drunk  by  the 
Spanish  people  than  by  any  other.  Cocoa  made 
its  advent  into  England  in  1657.     By  the  begin- 


264  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

ning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  had  become 
a  fashionable  drink.  In  popular  favor,  however, 
it  was  soon  outstripped  by  tea  and  coffee.  Cocoa 
has  remained  a  beverage  of  the  rich  ;  its  high 
price  places  it  beyond  the  reach  of  the  poor. 

The  botanist  divides  Theobroma  into  four  spe- 
cies ;  the  trader  values  a  species  of  cocoa  accord- 
ing to  the  place  of  its  growth.  Caracas  exports 
the  best  cocoa.  The  stimulative  power  of  this 
drink  depends  on  a  substance  termed  theobromine  ; 
it  is  identical  with  theine  and  caffeine.  Cocoa-fat 
is  a  solid,  singularly  free  from  rancidness,  and  is 
used  in  surgical  practice  and  in  making  pomades 
and  soaps.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  tea 
and  coffee  are  stimulants  merely  ;  they  have  no 
value  as  food.  But  cocoa  is  a  nourishing  article 
of  diet ;  drinking  it  introduces  nitrogenous  ele- 
ments into  the  system. 

In  Paraguay  and  South  Brazil,  the  leaves  of  a 
small  tree,  the  mate,  are  used  in  the  same  way 
in  which  tea-leaves  are  employed  by  ourselves. 
These  mate  leaves  contain  theine,  and  are  pre- 
pared by  drying  and  roasting  them  while  they 
are  attached  to  the  stems  and  branches.  A 
whole  tree  is  often  cut  down  to  save  the  labor  of 
picking  off  its   leaves. 

When  the  drying  and  roasting  have  rendered 
the  leaves  brittle,  and  developed  the  aromatic  oil 


THE  FOOD   OF  THE   GODS.  265 

which  gives  the  peculiar  flavor  and  odor  to  mate, 
then  the  branches  are  thrown  into  pits  in  the 
ground,  and  the  leaves  whipped  off.  An  infusion 
of  mate  is  of  a  yellowish-brown  color,  and  has 
a  pleasant  taste,  but  becomes  moldy  if  kept  for 
a  few  days.  The  beverage  is  not  fit  for  habitual 
use  by  persons  of  weak  constitution. 

Another  substitute  for  tea,  guarana-bread,  is 
extensively  used  in  Brazil  and  Bolivia.  It  is  pre- 
pared from  the  seeds  of  a  small  climbing-plant. 
They  are  roasted  and  ground,  and  the  flour  is 
mixed  with  water  to  form  a  paste,  which  is  then 
molded  into  small  rolls.  A  quantity  of  this  paste 
has  merely  to  be  infused  in  water  in  order  to  pro- 
duce a  delightful  and  invigorating  draught.  The 
seeds  contain  no  less  than  five  per  cent  of  theine. 

The  sixth  and  last  useful  stimulant,  employed 
as  a  beverage,  is  the  kola  nut  of  Central  Africa. 
Theine  is  found  in  this  fruit  also.  It  is  a  signifi- 
cant and  most  instructive  fact,  that  the  potency  of 
the  six  main  uninjurious  beverages  of  mankind  is 
due  to  theine. 

Different  races,  living  far  asunder,  sought  for 
a  natural  stimulant  to  be  used  as  a  drink.  China- 
man, Arab,  Aztec,  Guarani  Indian,  and  Negro 
searched  field  and  forest,  for  hundreds  of  years, 
testing  branch  and  root,  leaf  and  flower,  fruit  and 
seed,  till,  finally,  each  of  those  dissimilar  types  of 


266  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

mankind  found  the  object  of  his  quest.  Centuries 
afterwards,  the  Caucasian  chemist  analyzes  these 
strange  beverages,  so  unlike  in  taste  and  appear- 
ance —  and  lo  !  they  are  all  the  same.  Theine  is 
the  soul  of  each. 


Lesson  LXXI. 
Waters. 


The  most  important  article  of  diet  is  water.  It 
forms  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  body,  and  is  the 
carrier  of  food  into  the  system.  Water  is  con- 
tained not  only  in  the  liquids  drunk  as  beverages, 
but  also  in  all  kinds  of  solid  foods.  To  be  fit  for 
drinking,  water  must  fulfil  certain  conditions.  It 
must  have  no  smell,  even  when  heated,  and  its 
taste  must  be  pleasant.  In  color,  it  should  be  pale 
blue,  or  bluish-green. 

Drinking  water  must  always  contain  a  certain 
amount  of  air.  This  air  consists  of  three  gases  — 
nitrogen,  oxygen,  and  carbonic  acid  gas.  Boiled 
water,  having  lost  its  gases,  is  insipid  and  flat. 
Spring-water,  in  percolating  through  the  ground, 
absorbs  air.  Water  leaping  from  ledge  to  ledge 
becomes  still  more  highly  aerated.  Certain  mineral 
matters  should  also  be  found  in  the  best  drinking 


WA  TERS.  267 

water.  Of  these  the  chief  is  carbonate  of  lime. 
But  the  lime  should  be  present  in  exceedingly 
small  quantities  only. 

If  a  gallon  of  water,  or  even  a  pint,  be  boiled 
away,  there  will  remain  some  dry  matter.  The 
more  of  this  left  by  water,  on  its  evaporation,  the 
"harder"  the  water  is,  and  the  less  suitable  will  it 
be  for  household  use.  Hard  water  requires  more 
soap  for  washing  purposes,  leaves  more  "fur,"  or 
white  deposit,  in  kettles,  and  does  not  extract 
thoroughly  the  beneficial  properties  of  tea  and 
coffee. 

If  the  dry  residue,  left  after  boiling  away  a 
quantity  of  water,  is  white  or  powdery,  that  is,  so 
far,  a  good  sign.  But  if,  on  heating  this  residue 
hotter  and  hotter,  it  darkens,  and  gives  out  an 
offensive  smell,  the  water  contains  animal  matter. 
This  is  likely  to  be  unwholesome  or  even  poison- 
ous, and  perfectly  clear  waters  may  be  more 
noxious  than  muddy  ones. 

During  the  past  twenty  years,  the  temperance 
movement  has  given  a  powerful  impulse  to  the  use 
of  various  effervescent  drinks.  These  beverages, 
whatever  name  be  given  to  them,  differ  only  in 
flavor.  They  are  all,  whether  sweetened  or  aro- 
matized, merely  water  charged  with  carbonic  acid 
gas. 

Springs   of   sparkling   water   occur  abundantly 


268 


FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 


throughout  the  world.  Their  agreeable  qualities 
led  people  to  attempt  to  produce  these  by  artificial 
means,  and  thus  the  present  important  industry  of 
carbonated  drinks  originated.  The  earliest  method 
was  the  use  of  powders  of  soda  and  tartaric  acid. 
When  these  substances  are  dissolved  together  in 


water,  carbonic  acid  gas  bubbles  up  through  the 
water,  causing  effervescence. 

In  making  the  common  carbonated  beverages, 
the  carbonic  acid  is  sometimes  prepared  in  a  copper 
vessel,  lined  with  porcelain,  and  set  below  the 
water  to  be  aerated.  The  gas  passes  into  the  water 
through  cylinders  connecting  with  the  water-box 


WA  TERS.  269 

above.  More  usually  this  gas  is  evolved,  in  a  lead 
chamber,  by  pouring  sulphuric  acid  on  marble  dust 
or  chalk. 

Water  possesses  the  singular  power  of  absorb- 
ing, under  pressure,  gases  to  five  times  its  own  vol- 
ume. Advantage  is  taken  of  this  fact  by  using  a 
force  pump  to  press  carbonic  acid  into  water  in  a 
very  strong  copper  boiler,  tinned  inside,  in  which 
an  agitator  is  kept  revolving.  The  carbonated 
water  generally  termed  soda-water,  is  drawn  off  at 
a  bottling  apparatus.  Corking  is  done  by  one 
machine,  wiring  the  corks  by  another.  Bottles 
explode  so  frequently  that  the  men  filling  them  use 
special  safeguards.  An  expert  bottler  will  fill  and 
cork  5,000  bottles  in  ten  hours. 

Sweetened  aerated  drinks,  such  as  tonic  and 
lemon-soda,  are  made  by  placing  the  proper  quan- 
tity of  syrup  in  each  bottle,  and  adding  carbonated 
water.  Old-fashioned  spruce  beer  used  to  be  made 
without  help  from  machinery,  and  was  sweetened 
with  sugar. 

The  popularity  of  any  of  these  drinks  depends 
largely  on  the  flavor  it  possesses.  The  matchless 
fragrance  and  taste  of  fresh  fruits  for  a  long  time 
eluded  chemical  research.  It  was  only  by  accident 
that  a  significant  hint  was  caught.  A  chance  mix- 
ture of  ethers  was  found  to  have  the  exact  taste  of 
the  well-known  Jargonelle  pear.     This  ether  com- 


270  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

pound  is  called  amyl  acetate,  and  can  be  derived 
from  vinegar  and  potato  oil.  All  fruit  flavors  can 
now  be  successfully  imitated  in  the  chemist's 
laboratory.  Dishonest  vendors  of  carbonated  drinks 
are  apt  to  assert  that  their  sweetening  liquids  fla- 
vored with  ethers  are  fresh-fruit  syrups. 


Lesson  LXXII. 
Turning  Food  into  Poison. 

There  is  a  country  in  which  thousands  of  the 
inhabitants  suffer  daily  from  hunger  ;  yet  every 
year,  48,000,000  bushels  of  grain  are  there  caused 
to  rot  in  water,  in  order  to  produce  a  poisonous 
beverage.  This  is  drunk  by  vast  numbers  of  the 
people.  Its  use  is  attended  with  wide-spread 
disease  and  death.  You  will  guess  the  name  of 
the  country  when  you  learn  that  the  poison  is 
alcolwL  It  is  usually  sold  under  the  names  of  its 
diluted  preparations  —  brandy,  whiskey,  beer,  gin, 
rum,  and  wine. 

All  chemists  are  agreed  that  alcohol  is  a  nar- 
cotic poison.  It  may  be  taken  in  quantities  so 
small  that  its  effect  is  hardly  perceptible,  but  its 
tendency  to  lessen  the  vital  power  is  the  same  in 
every  case.     Alcohol  is  an  irritant  which  creates 


TURNING  FOOD  INTO  POISON.  27 1 

an  inflammation,  mistakenly  spoken  of  as  heat. 
To  burn  one's  hand  is  not  to  warm  it.  A  drunk- 
ard's stomach  is  so  inflamed  that  it  cannot  bear 
the  proper  amount  of  food. 

The  irritating  effects  of  alcohol  are  of  course 
proportionate  to  the  quantity  imbibed.  Large 
doses  of  the  poison  occasion  death.  Smaller  ones 
stupefy  the  brain.  The  action  of  the  heart  is 
quickened  beyond  the  proper  rate.  This  forced 
stimulation  soon  exhausts  the  bodily  strength. 
The  brain  and  muscles,  which  depend  on  the  heart 
for  their  blood  supply,  become  languid,  and  remain 
so  for  hours.  It  is  hard  physical  work  to  fight 
against  alcohol  —  harder  work  than  boat-rowing  or 
heaving  coal. 

Alcohol  predisposes  its  victims  to  disease. 
When  plagues  and  epidemics  have  raged,  it  has 
•  been  noticed  that  drunkards  were  stricken  down 
first.  This  fact  should  not  be  interpreted  to  mean 
that  it  is  only  excess  in  liquor-drinking  that  is 
harmful.  The  daily  use  of  even  a  small  quantity 
of  any  intoxicating  beverage  is  dangerous. 

A  man  living  in  an  atmosphere  polluted  with 
carbonic  acid  gas  may  not  realize  that  his  health 
is  being  slowly  undermined  ;  yet  he  would  readily 
admit  that,  were  he  to  breathe  nothing  but  such 
gas,  his  life  would  soon  be  gone.  The  moderate 
drinker  fancies  that  he  is  safe,  although  he  knows 


272  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

that  a  large  draught  would  prove  fatal.  No  one 
can  drink  alcohol  without  diluting  it.  The  strong- 
est liquor  sold  contains  a  heavy  percentage  of 
water. 

While  the  evil  outcome  of  using  intoxicants  is 
more  marked  on  the  brain,  no  organ  of  the  body 
escapes  more  or  less  injury.  The  habitual  use  of 
liquor  destroys  health,  and  diminishes  mental 
activity  more  greatly  than  most  persons  would 
suppose. 

That  alcohol  lowers  the  tone  of  the  system,  is 
evidenced  by  all  men's  careful  abstinence  from  its 
use  when  any  unwonted  effort  of  strength  and 
endurance  is  about  to  be  made.  Athletes,  while 
training,  avoid  all  kinds  of  intoxicating  liquor. 
Wounded  soldiers  that  have  been  total  abstainers 
recover  more  rapidly  than  their  wounded  com- 
rades that  have  been  tipplers.  During  our  Civil  * 
War,  the  Union  armies  endured  hunger,  toil,  heat, 
and  cold,  yet  coffee  was  their  only  stimulant. 

Alcohol  is  not  a  natural  product.  Nothing  in 
nature  —  nothing  as  it  comes  to  us  from  the  hand 
of  Providence  —  contains  alcohol,  although  that 
hand  is  opened  liberally  to  supply  the  wants  of 
everything  that  lives.  Grape  juice  is  not  inebri- 
ating till  fermented.  Grain  must  be  rotted  before 
it  becomes  useful  to  the  brewer  and  the  distiller. 
For  the  production  of  alcohol,  the  following  things, 


A    BANEFUL  BEVERAGE.  273 

mixed  together,  are  necessary  :  Sugar,  or  some- 
thing changeable  into  sugar,  as  starch  ;  water,  to 
dissolve  the  sugar ;  and  some  nitrogenous  sub- 
stance as  a  ferment. 

Then,  at  a  moderate  temperature,  the  process  of 
decay  begins.  The  sugar  is  decomposed,  its  atoms 
separate,  and  form  the  new  compounds  of  carbonic 
acid  gas  and  alcohol.  The  putrefaction  is  not 
allowed  to  go  on  to  completion,  but  is  stopped  at 
a  certain  stage ;  otherwise,  no  alcohol  would  be 
obtained. 

Milk  is  a  food,  water  is  an  aid  to  digestion  — 
intoxicating  liquor  is  neither.  It  is  a  poison  which 
lessens  the  vital  heat,  and  which  the  human  system 
gets  rid  of  as  quickly  as  possible. 


Lesson  LXXIII. 
A  Baneful  Beverage. 


If  a  man  spends  a  dollar  on  grain  that  might  be 
converted  into  bread,  and  then  destroys  the  grain, 
there  is  a  clear  waste  of  a  dollar.  If  he  had 
received  the  grain  in  the  shape  of  whisky,  and 
had  poured  this  whisky  on  the  street,  the  grain 
would  have  been  wasted  in  this  case  also. 

If  he  had  drunk  the  whisky,  the  waste  would 


274  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

still  have  been  as  great,  and  other  evils  would 
have  followed.  What  is  true  of  one  man  and  one 
dollar  does  not  cease  to  be  true  when  the  transac- 
tion includes  millions  of  men  and  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars.  It  is  estimated  that  the  people 
of  the  United  States  spend,  every  year,  for  intoxi- 
cating liquors  the  colossal  amount  of  $700,000,000. 

No  human  intellect  can  grasp  the  full  significance 
of  these  figures.  Were  this  sum  thrown  into  mer- 
cantile enterprises,  it  would  give  a  tremendous  im- 
pulse to  the  national  prosperity.  The  thousands 
now  ill  fed  and  poorly  clothed  would  be  able  to 
live  in  comfort ;  and  the  thousands  of  scantily  fur- 
nished dwellings  would  be  supplied  with  all  neces- 
sary articles. 

The  grain  used  as  food  by  a  workman  enables 
him  to  perform  more  labor ;  but,  if  the  grain  is 
rotted  to  make  liquor,  and  the  workman  consumes 
the  liquor,  he  is  forced  to  neglect  his  work  entirely, 
or  to  slight  it  as  long  as  his  employer  permits  him. 

An  intemperate  mechanic  becomes  less  skilful, 
and  accordingly  earns  less  than  if  he  were  a  sober 
man.  Much  labor  is  also  lost  by  the  absence  of 
men  from  their  work  in  consequence  of  using  in- 
toxicants. As  all  wealth  or  value  is  the  product 
of  labor,  the  whole  country  is  poorer  on  account  of 
the  time  lost  by  its  working  classes. 

Most  of  the  paupers  in  our  alms-houses  were 


A   BANEFUL   BEVERAGE.  27$ 

compelled  to  ask  for  public  charity,  because,  by 
indulging  in  strong  drink,  they  had  rendered  them- 
selves unfit  for  laboring.  There  is  a  large  army 
of  tramps  constantly  roaming  over  the  land,  beg- 
ging, stealing,  and  always  living  in  idleness. 
Liquor  has  for  the  most  part  reduced  them  to  their 
degraded  condition  ;  they  are,  with  few  exceptions, 
drunkards  still.  Their  work-power,  too,  is  lost  to 
the  nation. 

Our  prisons  contain  thousands  of  criminals,  each 
of  whom  costs  #200  yearly  for  his  support.  If  the 
paupers,  tramps,  criminals,  and  idlers  were  added 
to  the  productive  labor  classes,  the  country  would 
be  richer  by  $200,000,000  annually.  Every  rail- 
road is  forced  to  pay  thousands  of  dollars  yearly 
in  consequence  of  accidents  plainly  traceable  to 
drunkenness.  All  hospital  superintendents  agree 
that  the  accident-wards  would  be  almost  vacant, 
were  all  men  total  abstainers.  When  we  reflect 
on  the  number  of  railroad  collisions,  of  shipwrecks, 
of  mine  accidents,  and  of  other  casualties  daily 
occurring,  nearly  all  caused  by  liquor,  we  are  forced 
to  conclude  that  the  losses  thereby  suffered  must  be 
considerable.  There  is  also  much  labor  employed 
and  much  money  expended  in  efforts  directed 
against  intemperance  and  its  resulting  evils.  The 
sum  spent  for  the  liquor  itself,  then,  does  not 
represent*  the  entire  loss  to  the  nation,  vast  as  that 


276  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

sum  is  shown  to  be.  The  evil  outcome  of  strong 
drink  is  manifested  in  various  other  losses  of  time, 
money,  property,  and  labor. 

It  is  painful  to  note  that  the  classes  which  can 
least  afford  to  expend  any  money  on  intoxicants 
are  the  classes  which  expend  the  most.  They  are 
thus  unable  to  have  comfortable  homes  and  suffi- 
cent  food  and  clothing  for  themselves  and  families. 
Happily  for  the  nation,  large  numbers  of  working 
people  are  sober  and  industrious  ;  and  they  them- 
selves reap,  in  their  superior  mode  of  living,  the 
reward  of  their  industry  and  sobriety. 

If  there  were  no  idleness,  no  extravagance,  no 
criminals  nor  paupers  to  be  maintained  at  public 
expense,  if  there  were  no  unproductive  labor  and 
no  waste,  the  hours  needed  to  be  devoted  to  work, 
in  order  to  provide  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of 
life,  would  be  lessened  by  half  their  present 
number.  This  nation's  hope  is  in  the  young 
people.  They  are  never  drunkards.  If  the  pupils 
in  our  schools  determine  to  advance  the  temperance 
cause  as  far  as  lies  in  each  one's  power,  the  future 
of  our  country  is  safe.     Will  you  do  your  part  ? 


THE  IRON  APPRAISER   OF  FOOD.        277 

Lesson  LXXIV. 
The  Iron  Appraiser  of  Food. 

Forty  years  ago,  Illinois  farmers  were  feeding 
unthreshed  wheat  to  their  cattle.  Ten  years  ago 
corn  was  used  as  fuel  in  Western  Nebraska.  In 
neither  State  would  it  have  paid  to  haul  the  grain 
over  the  rough  roads  to  market.  Dealers  could 
not  afford  to  give  an  adequate  price  —  transpor- 
tation to  the  Eastern  cities  was  too  expensive. 
No  railroad  was  near.  Grain  was  as  valuable  then, 
for  food  purposes,  as  it  is  now ;  but  there  was  no 
way  to  bring  it  from  those  who  had  too  much 
of  it  to  those  who  had  too  little. 

At  that  time,  it  cost  the  price  of  a  bushel  of 
wheat  to  send  a  letter  from  Dubuque  to  New 
York.  To-day  the  same  letter  would  be  carried 
across  the  continent  for  two  cents.  No  grain  now 
rots  in  the  stack.  The  wheat  farms  of  the  great 
North-west  are  enriching  their  owners.  The  sor- 
ghum-mills of  Nebraska  have  made  corn  one  of 
the  most  profitable  of  crops.  But  neither  farmer 
nor  mill-proprietor  would  find  his  business  gainful, 
if  there  were  no  railroad  near  his  property. 

The  greatest  need  of  man  is  intercourse  with 
his  fellow-men.     Gold  is  useless  in  the  hands  of 


278  FOODS  AND  BEVERAGES. 

a  human  being  separated  from  the  rest  of  human- 
ity. But  grain  is  serviceable,  whoever  owns  it. 
Life  depends  on  food.  The  market  value  of  grain, 
however,  differs  from  its  natural  value ;  and  one 
of  the  chief  factors  in  fixing  the  market  value  of 
any  commodity  is  the  expense  of  transporting  that 
commodity  to  the  place  of  sale.  The  cost  of  con- 
veying a  load  of  wheat  ten  miles  by  wagon  is 
generally  greater  than  the  freightage  of  that  load 
for  a  thousand  miles  by  rail. 

Seventy  years  ago  the  millers  of  Ohio  used  to 
send  flour  to  the  East.  Ten  dollars  a  barrel  was 
the  charge  for  carrying  it,  in  wagons,  from  Buffalo 
to  Albany.  The  Erie  Canal  was  built,  and  the 
rate  of  transportation  was  lowered  to  two  dollars 
a  barrel.  Railroads  to  Buffalo  were  constructed, 
and  the  freightage  was  reduced  to  thirty-five 
cents. 

Steam  obtains  new  customers  for  producers. 
It  makes  possible  the  sale  of  Texas  cattle  to  own- 
ers of  London  abattoirs.  When  a  railroad  is  built 
through  a  new  country,  the  land  rises  in  value 
immediately.  Farm  produce  can  be  more  cheaply 
delivered  to  purchasers,  and  profits  are  greater. 
As  the  means  of  rapid  transportation  increase,  the 
price  of  any  article  of  merchandise  tends  to  be- 
come the  same  all  over  the  Union.  At  one  period 
of  our  history,  the  price  of  wheat,  per  bushel,  in 


THE  IRON  APPRAISER   OF  FOOD.        279 

New  York,  was  four  times  higher  than  the  price 
in  Illinois. 

The  cost  of  any  class  of  goods  can  never  again 
vary  much  in  the  United  States.  100,000  tons  of 
grain  can  be  sent  in  ten  days  from  Portland, 
Oregon,  to  Portland,  Maine.  Minneapolis  packs 
4,000  tons  of  flour  daily.  That  flour  can  be  trans- 
ported from  the  mills  to  the  Grand  Central  Depot 
in  New  York,  for  sixty-five  cents  a  barrel.  Not  all 
the  horses  in  America  could  do,  in  a  year,  the 
work  of  freight  transportation  done  by  our  rail- 
roads every  day. 

For  centuries,  the  world  waited  for  the  freight- 
train  to  go  out  to  the  rich  pastures  of  Wyoming, 
and  to  bring  back  beef  for  ill-fed  city  millions. 
Prior  to  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  vessels 
sailed  to  there  around  Cape  Horn  for  cargoes  of 
hides.  It  is  known  that  in  three  years  320,000  head 
of  cattle  were  slaughtered.  The  hides  were  pre- 
served, the  carcasses  were  left  to  dry  into  dust 
under  a  burning  sun.  The  meat  had  no  mercantile 
value  —  there  was  no  means  of  conveying  it  to 
market.  To-day,  every  city  in  California  is  con- 
nected, by  iron  bands,  with  every  other  city  in 
our  vast  domain  ;  and  such  waste  of  valuable  food 
cannot  again  occur  in  the  United  States. 

Until  the  railroad  went  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  and 
appraised   the   beef   there,    that   beef  was  worth 


280  FOODS  AND   BEVERAGES. 

nothing  commercially.  Cheaper  freightage  means 
cheaper  provision.  Every  additional  mile  of  rail- 
road increases  the  amount  of  farm  products  offered 
for  sale.  As  we  number  our  unplowed  acres  by 
the  million,  the  question  of  our  food  supply  must 
be,  for  many  years,  mainly  a  question  of  swift 
transportation  from  farm  to  market.  Before  the 
close  of  the  present  century,  our  national  develop- 
ment will  have  added  100,000  miles  more  to  our 
present  railroad  system  ;  and  any  production  of 
our  soil  or  mines  will  then  be  nearly  uniform  in 
price  throughout   our   broad  territory. 

All  material  wants  can  be  satisfied  by  that 
marvellous  interchange  of  products  which  we  call 
commerce.  Every  one  feels  certain  that  he  can 
have  his  dinner,  if  he  is  able  to  pay  for  it.  Who 
stops  to  reflect,  when  buttering  his  bread,  on  the 
result  to  himself  of  a  murrain  raging  among  the 
cows  of  the  Union  ?  What  coffee  drinker  ever 
inquires  whether  Brazil's  plantations  are  flourish- 
ing or  not  ?  Yet  a  failure  in  our  wheat -harvest 
might  starve  the  poor  of  London.  An  unexpected 
frost  in  Cuba  would   make  sugar  a  luxury  here. 

The  vast  proportions  of  a  great  nation's  food- 
supply  are  not  easily  apprehended.  In  1889,  no 
fewer  than  58,000,000  bushels  of  wheat  went  into 
English  ports.  Twice  that  immense  quantity  was 
consumed  in  the  United  States  ;   and  we  exported 


THE  IRON  APPRAISER   OF  FOOD.        28 1 

over  300,000,000  bushels  of  grain  and  1,000,000 
tons  of  beef  and  pork.  The  price  of  bread  in 
Europe  is  settled  in  Chicago. 

We  are  the  best-fed  people  on  the  globe.  The 
consumption  of  grain  is  here  forty-one  bushels  to 
the  person,  annually  ;  in  Europe,  eighteen  bushels. 
Americans  eat,  on  the  average,  each,  one  hundred 
and  twenty  pounds  of  meat  yearly ;  Europeans, 
fifty-seven  and  a  half  pounds.  But,  we  must 
remember,  it  is  to  the  great  West  that  we  are 
indebted  for  our  rich  stores  of  food.  All  the 
wheat  raised,  in  a  year,  in  the  six  New  England 
States,  would  not  provide  their  population  bread 
enough  for  six  weeks.  It  is  the  products  of  the 
West  that  place  the  United  States  at  the  head  of 
the  valuation  list  of  the  nations. 


NATURAL    HISTORY   READERS. 
By  the  Rev.  J.  G.  WOOD,  M.A. 

Author  of  '•  Homes  Without  Hands,"  etc. 


THIS  SERIES  OF  READERS  is  carefully  graduated, 
both  as  to  matter  and  language;  the  list  of  words  for 
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children's  difficulties,  and  is  therefore  in  every  way  fitted  to 
serve  the  purpose  of  ordinary  reading-books. 

Nothing  more  readily  interests  children  than  animal  life. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  in  the  lower  readers  no  animals  are 
introduced  but  those  that  are  more  or  less  familiar  to  children  ; 
the  subjects  are  treated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  lead  the  way 
naturally  to  the  scientific  classification  introduced  in  the 
higher  books. 

FIRST    READER. 

Short  and  simple  stories  about  Common  Domestic 
Animals 20c. 

SECOND    READER. 

Short    and    simple    stories    about   Animals    of    the 
Fields,  Birds,  etc 30c. 

THIRD    READER. 

Descriptive  of  familiar  Animals  and  some  of  their 
wild  relations 42c. 

FOURTH    READER. 

The  Monkey  Tribe,  the  Bat  Tribe,  the  Mole,  Ox, 
Horse,  Elephant,  etc 54c- 

FIFTH    READER 

Birds,  Reptiles,  Fishes,  etc 54c- 

SIXTH    READER. 

Molluscs,  Crustacea,  Spiders,  Insects,  Corals,  Jelly 
Fish,  Sponges,  etc 54c- 


PHILIPS' 
GEOGRAPHICAL    READERS. 


THESE  READERS  have  been  most  carefully  prepared, 
and  the  publishers  feel  confident  that  in  the  treatment 
of  the  subject,  the  style  and  quality  of  the  matter,  the  num- 
ber and  beauty  of  the  illustrations,  the  legibility  and  accuracy 
of  the  maps  and  diagrams,  the  books  will  be  found  superior 
to  any  other  similar  series,  and  will  render  the  study  of 
geography  interesting  and  attractive.  The  series  contains 
no  less  than  800  valuable  illustrations  and  maps. 

1.  FIRST  STEPS.    Parti.,  explaining  "plans  of  school 

and  playground,  the  cardinal  points,  and  meaning 
and  use  of  a  map."    With  word-lists  and  summaries,  27c. 

2.  FIRST    STEPS.     Part  II.     "The  size  and  shape  of 

the  world,  geographical  terms  simply  explained  and 
illustrated  by  reference  to  the  map  of  England,  and 
physical  geography  of  hills  and  rivers "     .     .     .     .     30c. 

3.  ENGLAND,    Physical    and    Political,    in    a  graphic 

narrative  form 36c. 

4.  BRITISH  ISLES,  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICA, 

and  AUSTRALASIA,  described  in  a  series  of  well 
written  sketches  of  voyages,  travels,  etc 54c. 

5.  EUROPE,  Physical    and    Political,    described  in    a 

series  of  narratives  of  voyage  and  tours.  With 
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the  seasons 63c. 

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which  determine  climate 72c* 


PHILIPS'  HISTORICAL  READERS. 


i.  STORIES  FROM  ENGLISH  HISTORY.  128  pages; 
38  Short  Lessons,  with  numerous  Explanatory  Notes; 
62  beautiful  Pictures,  and  a  Map  of  England  and  Wales. 
Price,  30  cents. 

These  stories  from  English  history  form  one  of  the  brightest  and  most 
attractive  Routing  Hooks  ever  published.  Each  story  is  not  only  well  writ- 
tin,  but  also  beautifully  illustrated.  The  portrait  of  Her  Majesty  the  Queen, 
which  forms  the  frontispiece,  is  extremely  fine.  Altogether,  this  book  is  an 
admirable  introduction  to  the  study  of  English  history. 

2.  EARLY    ENGLAND,  from    Pre-historic  Times   to    the 

Year  1154.  192  pages  ;  54  interesting  Lessons  with  useful 
Notes;  94  attractive  pictures;  6  finely  engraved  maps. 
Price,  35  cents. 

In  this  beautifully  illustrated  and  well-written  little  book,  the  story  of  the 
making  and  founding  of  the  nation  is  graphically  sketched.  The  opening 
section  contains  vivid  pen  and  pencil  pictures  (based  on  the  latest  antiquarian 
and  geological  research)  of  life  in  that  country  in  pre-historic  times  —  the 
periods  of  the  men  of  the  caves,  the  stone-hatchet  men,  the  bronze-workers,  etc. 

3.  MIDDLE    ENGLAND,  from    1154  to   1603.     256  pages; 

Price,  52  cents. 

In  this  book,  the  history  of  the  country  is  continued  from  the  reign  of 
Henry  II.,  when  the  welding  of  Saxons  and  Normans  into  one  compact 
people  commenced,  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  when  the  modern, 
social,  political,  and  scientific  ideas  had  at  last  been  fully  thought  out.  The 
aim  has  not  been  to  give  merely  the  "  lives  "  of  the  kings  and  queens,  or  the 
records  of  war  and  victory,  but  to  present,  clearly  and  accurately,  the  real 
history  of  our  English  forefathers  during  what  may  be  justly  termed  the 
decisive  period  of  English  history. 

4.  MODERN    ENGLAND,  from  1603  to  1883.     272  pages. 

Price,  52  cents. 

In  this  book,  the  great  events  of  the  last  280  years  are  graphically  and 
succinctly  described  and  fully  illustrated.  The  high  educative  value  of  good 
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illustrations  form  one  of  the  characteristic  features  of  the  Series.  The 
greatest  possible  care  has  been  taken  to  preserve  an  absolutely  impartial  tone 
throughout  the  Series. 


CROCKER'S    METHODS    OF    TEACHING 
GEOGRAPHY. 

Notes  of  Lessons,  by  Lucretia  Crocker,  Member 

of  the  Board  of  Supervisors,  Boston  Public  Schools,  50c. 

A  series  of  talks  on  the  best  methods  of  teaching-  geography  and  the  art 
of  making  lessons  in  this  branch  of  education  interesting  and  simple  to  the 
mind  of  young  scholars.  Can  be  used  with  any  text-book  on  the  subject, 
and  will  enable  any  teacher  to  form  a  practical,  rational,  and  useful  system 
of  teaching.  To  the  young  teacher  it  will  prove  invaluable,  and  the  experi- 
enced teacher  will  find  it  serviceable  and  useful,  as  it  is  full  of  suggestions. 

TAYLOR'S    NOTES    OF    LESSONS    FOR      . 
YOUNG    TEACHERS. 

With  Models  from  Actual  Examination  Papers.     By 
John  Taylor.     i6mo.     Cloth 50c. 

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large  school.  He  has  trained  many  who  are  now  serving  the  cause  of  edu- 
cation successfully  and  honorably,  and  the  methods  he  tested  and  found 
most  valuable  to  them  have  been  embodied  in  this  little  manual. 

Advice  and  information  and  hints  on  Matter  and  Method  are  presented  to 
the  young  teacher  as  freely  and  candidly  as  a  master  would  teach  his  pupil. 
If  these  hints  are  accepted  and  adopted,  they  cannot  fail  to  produce  beneficial 
results. 

GILL'S    CHARMING    SONGS    FOR    LITTLE 
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selection    of    simple    and    attractive    melodies    for 

ordinary  occasions.     Each 25c. 

BAILEY.'S    HINTS    ON    INTRODUCING    THE 
KINDERGARTEN    SYSTEM    INTO 
INFANT    SCHOOLS. 
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FROEBEL'S    EXPLANATION    OF   THE    KINDER- 
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GEOGRAPHICAL    CHART 

for  Elementary  Classes.  One  large  sheet.  Size, 
68  x  54  inches.  Mounted  on  calico,  rollers, 
and  varnished $5.00 

Comprises  the  following:  — 

(a)  A  large  Map  of  Great  Britain  and  Part  of  the  Conti- 

nent of  Europe.     Illustrating  the  various  Geograph- 
ical Definitions,  Political  and  Physical. 

(b)  A  large    Pictorial   Scene,   illustrating  to  the  eye    the 

chief  Features  of  Land  and  Water. 

(c)  Diagrams  of  Schoolroom,  Schoolhouse,  and  Ground 

Plan  of  School  Buildings. 

(d)  Mariner's  Compass. 

(<?)    Pictorial  View  of  the  Course  of  a  River,  from  its  Source 
to  the  Mouth. 

(/)  Diagram  illustrating  method  of  ascertaining  direction 
from  the  Sun  —  North,  South,  East,  or  West. 

(g)  Map  of  the    Globe,  showing   Division   of  Land  and 
Water. 

(//)  Six  Typical  Heads,  illustrating  the  Races  of  Mankind. 

(i)    The  Earth  in  Space. 

(/)  Diagram  showing  the  Curvature  of  the  Earth. 

The  above  Chart  has  been  prepared  with  great  care,  and 
will  be  found  extremely  helpful  in  class  teaching. 


OBJECT-LESSON    CARDS. 


THE  GREAT  VALUE  OF  LESSONS  ON  OBJECTS 
as  a  means  of  elementary  instruction  is  now  so  gener- 
ally recognized  as  to  cause  an  increasing  demand  for 
appliances  adapted  to  this  mode  of  teaching. 

THESE  OBJECT-LESSON  CARDS  have  been  pre- 
pared to  meet  this  demand.  The  subjects  have  been  selected 
and  the  information  condensed  with  much  care.  Their 
special  feature  consists  in  the  subjects  being  illustrated  by 
specimens  of  raw  and  manufactured  materials  attacked  to 
each  Card,  which  give  to  the  lessons  an  interest  more  vivid 
and  permanent  than  ca^i  be  obtained  by  mere  pictorial 
representation 

COMPLETE    IN    THREE    SERIES. 

I.  THE   VEGETABLE    KINGDOM. 

Specimens  of  Leaves,  Flowers,  Nuts, Bark,  Wood, 
and  other  substances  attached  to  the  Cards,  illus- 
trate each  subject.     Set  of  20  Cards      ....     $8.25 

II.  THE   ANIMAL   KINGDOM. 

The  subjects  are  illustrated  by  pictures  of  the 
Animals  referred  to,  and  by  specimens  of  Skins, 
Leather,  Wool,  Cloth,  Hair,  Fur,  Silk,  Feathers, 
Shells,  and  various  other  materials.  Set  of  14 
Cards $8.25 

III.  THE    MINERAL    KINGDOM. 

Samples  of  Ores  and  other  mineral  substances, 
wood  engravings,  and  manufactured  articles,  illus- 
trate the  various  subjects.     Set  of  14  Cards  .     .     $8.25 

The  size  of  each  Card  is  20  x  13  inches,  and  each  Series  is  enclosed  in  a 
handsome  wood  box. 

*  *  *  A  complete  and  detailed  list  of  the  contents  of  each  Card  will  be  sent 
on  application. 


Vti  36191 


